z 

53 

734a 


MEDIAEVAL 

W&W'W^A  ND 


Ex  Ubris 
C.  K.  OGDEN 


X 


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OF 

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OF  CALIFORNIA 

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ANCIKNT 


MEDIiEVAL  SHORTHAND; 


DK.  J.  W.  ZEIBIG'S 


GescMcJtte  der  GeschwindscJireibJcunst, 


N.    P.    HKKKI.BY, 

MEMRER   OF    THB    INTERNATIONAL     SHORTHAND      CONGRESS,     AND    THB    BTOLZE     8TXIC0- 

OKAPHIC   SOCIETY   OF  BERLIN,   OERM ANY  ;      ASSOCIATE   MEMBKR  OF   THE   SHORTHAND 

SOCIETY.   LONDON  ;     HONORARY  MBUBEB   OF  THE  Jt.   Y.   STATE  STENOGBAPHEBS' 

ASSOCIATION     AND     OF     THE     NEBRASKA     STENOGRAPHERS'     ASSOCIATION. 


(Be-printed  from  the  Proceedings  of  the  N.  T.  State  Stenographers'  Ass'n  for  1887.) 


BROOKLYN,    N.    Y. 
1888. 


y^  COPYRIGHTED.  18fi8L^ 


z 

53 


PREFACE 


^^AVING  been  greatly  interested  in  the  historical  aspects  of  short- 
hand ever  since  beginning  its  study,  I  undertook,  some  years 
ago,  to  compile  a  detailed  and  impartial  history  of  "  Stenography 
and  Phonography,  or  Shorthand."  Since  the  publication  by  me  of 
the  "  Biography  of  the  Father  of  Stenography,"  etc.,  for  the  purpose 
of  ascertaining  whether  the  interest  in  the  history  of  this  art  woidd 
justify  the  publication  of  the  detailed  work,  as  outlined,  various 
causes  have  prevented  its  entire  completion.  Moreover,  the  little 
interest  generally  manifested  concerning  the  history  of  the  art  has 
rather  discouraged  the  preparation  and  publication  of  the  proposed 
-work. 

Solely  as  an  aid  in  \\\y  investigations,  I  translated,  in  1882,  that 
portion  of  Dr.  Zeibig's  celebrated  work*  which  relates  to  ancient 
shorthand  ;  this  work  being  the  most  complete,  in  this  respect,  of  any 
history  of  the  art  published  in  any  modern  -language.  In  view  of  the 
proposed  celebration  of  the  Jubilee  of  Phonography  and  Tercenten- 
ary of  Shorthand  at  London  next  September,  and  in  the  hope  of 
creating  an  increased  interest  in  the  history  of  the  art,  I  have  con- 
cluded to  publish  this  translation,  adding,  in  foot  notes,  renditions  of 
the  more  important  Latin  passages  occurring  in  the  original.  If  this 
hope  shall  be  realized,  I  shall  at  some  future  time  issue  a  fuller  and 
more  exhaustive  work  upon  the  history  of  shorthand  from  the  most 
ancient  to  the  present  time. 

Brooklyn,  K  Y.,  August  1,  1887.  N.  P.  H. 


*Ge8chichte  und  Llteratur  der  Geschwindschreibkunst  von  Dr.  .Julius  Woldeinar 
Zeibig,  Professor  am  Konigl.  stenograftschcn  Instilutzu  Dresden.  Herausgegeben  voui 
Kouigl.  stenografischen  Institut  zu  Dresden.  Zweite,  vermehrte,  verbesserte  und  uiit 
41  Tafeln  versehene  AuHage.    Dresden.     Verlag  von  Gustav  Dietze.    1878. 


INTRODUCTION. 

It  needs  no  authority  for  the  statement  that  writing  had  to  climb 
many  steps  of  simplification  before  it  reached  its  climax — tachygra- 
phy.  The  older  a  nation,  and  the  more  elaborate  and  unhandy 
its  writing,  the  more  difficult  and  perplexing  becariie  the  path 
which  led  to  this  object.  Among  nations  of  antiquity,  the  Romans 
alone,  and  in  their  later  days,  the  Greeks,  seem  to  have  developed  a 
quick-writing.  But  with  regard  to  their  systems,  we  may  well  exclaim 
with  Tacitus:  "Everything  was  not  better  with  our  forefathers; 
' '  our  age  also  has  produced  much  that  is  praiseworthy  and  of  use 
"  for  coming  generations." 

Interesting  as  it  is  to  trace  the  art  of  writing  from  its  first  incep- 
tion to  the  invention  which  reduced  it  to  its  greatest  simplicity,  we 
must  only  consider  so  much  of  the  history  of  its  development  as 
appears  indispensably  necessary  to  a  better  understanding  of  the 
several  methods.  As  regards  the  various  appellations  and  definitions 
of  tachygraphy,  the  majority  of  these  will  be  discussed  in  their  re- 
spective places.  We  may  refrain  from  referring  to  them  in 
advance  for  the  further  reason,  that,  in  spite  of  the  mani- 
fold terminology,  the  aim  which  the  inventor  of  every  sys- 
tem of  tachygraphy  has  in  view  is  one  and  the  same,  namely  : 
to  offer  to  every  one  the  possibility  to  write  as  quickly  as 
one  speaks,  and  with  such  accuracy  that  at  any  time  the  writing 
can,  not  only  be  read  by  himself  as  common  writing,  but  also  that 
others  conversant  with  the  system  may  be  able  to  read  it. 

To  show  what  exertions  have  from  time  to  time  been  made,  and 
by  whom,  in  order  to  attain  this  end,  is  the  object  of  this  history  of 
stenography. 


THE    ALLEGED    AGE    OF    THE    ART  OF    SHORTHAND 
WRITING. 

Kai  iq  fikv  axpoaatv  tatoq  to  (itj  [lu^wdeq 

abrmv  axeptziarepov  <pavetTat, 

— Thucydides. 
0<OHE  first  inquiry  as  to  how  far  the  invention  and  practice  of 
>^^Q  shorthand  writing  dates  back  into   antiquity,  has  been    an- 
'u'5^  swered  with    suppositions  and  assertions  which  cannot  be 
maintained  when  more  carefully  investigated. 


People  are  very  apt  to  trace  the  origin  of  an  art  into  the  obscurity 
of  the  earliest  times,  in  order  to  make  it  more  venerable.  Gabels- 
berger,  in  the  first  edition  of  his  Guide,  traces  the  art  of  shorthand 
writing  to  the  earliest  times  of  writing  practice.  In  the  very  begin- 
ning of  the  use  of  writing,  he  finds  the  highest  development.  In 
the  second  edition  of  this  Guide,  made  up  from  his  posthumous  pa- 
pers, scarcely  anything  is  found  of  the  historical  material  of  the  fli"st 
edition,  a  fact  which  perhaps  justifies  the  presumption  that  the 
author  himself  may  have  entertained  doubts  as  to  the  correctness  of 
the  statements  made  in  his  ^rlier  work.  Nevertheless,  the  subse- 
quent editors  of  his  system  did  not  entertain  such  doubts  respecting 
the  history  of  stenography,  and  almost  all  of  them  have  repeated  the 
essential  statements  that  were  contained  in  the  first  edition.  If, 
therefore,  my  investigation  of  the  question  :  Does  the  art  of  short- 
hand writing  date  back  as  far  into  antiquity  as  has  been  alleged?  is 
attended  with  different  results  than  appear  in  the  writings  of  my 
predecessors  in  this  field  of  historical  research,  no  one,  I  hope,  will 
accuse  me  of  irreverence  to  Gabelsberger,  or  condemn  the  hand 
which  destroys  the  halo  discovered  to  be  false.  If,  however,  con- 
trary to  my  belief,  some  one  should  accuse  me,  I  will  say  to  him  : 
"  Truth  is  more  to  me  than  Plato  and  Aristotle." 

That  the  ancient  Egyptians  did  not  know  the  art  of  shorthand 
writing  (which  people  were  inclined  to  believe  in  former  times)  can 
easily  be  established  by  making  ourselves  acquainted  with  the  sys- 
tems of  writing  used  by  that  people.  This  erroneous  hypothesis  has, 
therefore,  rightfully  been  rejected  by  Dr.  Anders. 

When  Gresenius  infers  from  the  change  in  the  form  of  the  written 
signs  of  the  Phoenicians  the  existence  of  shorthand  writing  among 
that  people,  he  can  only  have  had  the  current  writing  in  mind.  The 
Phoenicians  had  but  a  poor  literature.  We  have  knowledge  only  of 
a  few  monumental  inscriptions  or  priest's  books.  Their  merchants, 
who  were  the  disseminators  of  writing  along  the  Mediterranean, 
wrote  to  suit  their  own  purposes  and  naturally  made  use  of  briefer 
signs  than  those  found  on  the  monuments  of  stone  and  metal.  The 
necessity  for  a  real  shorthand  writing  did  not  exist  then,  and  nothing 
justifies  the  assumption  that  it  did.  But  the  evidence  which  Gesenius 
adduces  for  his  opinion  of  the  alleged  existence  of  tachygraphers 
among  the  Hebrews,  is,  as  we  shall  presently  show,  entirely  insup- 
portable. 

Further,  we  read  :  "  Xerxes,  for  a  quicker  execution  of  his  com- 
"  mands,  employed  shorthand  writers."  In  Herodotus,  upon  whom 
they  seem  to  base  this  statement,  we  search  in  vain  for  a  confirmation 
thereof.  The  only  passages  which  possibly  might  have  led  to  such 
a  view  are  the  following:  In  the  7th  book  we  read  :  "  After  Xerxes 
"had  his  army  counted  and  mustered  he  wished  to  inspect  it  him- 
"self;  he  seated  himself  in  a  chariot  and  visited  all  the  various  na- 


.1 

"tionalities  of  which  the  army  was  composed.  Each  of  these 
"  nationalities  he  investigated,  and  made  inquiries  about  their  circum- 
'•  stances,  and  his  writers  noted  down  the  information  Tie  received,  until 
"  he  had  passed  from  one  end  to  the  other  and  had  seen  all  his  in- 
"  fantry  and  cavalry.  Then  he  ordered  the  ships  to  goto  sea,  and, 
' '  alighting  from  his  chariot,  entered  into  a  Sidonian  vessel  and 
*'  seated  himself  under  a  gold  woven  tent.  He  passed  in  front  of 
"  every  vessel  and  put  the  same  questions  which  he  had  addressed 
"  to  the  army,  to  the  various  divisions  of  the  fleet,  and  had  the  an- 
' '  swers,  likewise,  written  down."  In  the  3rd  book  it  is  said  that 
"  the  subordinate  generals  all  had  royally  appointed  writers."  Both 
of  these  passages  can  only  be  forcibly  strained  into  proof  that  short- 
hand writers  existed  among  the  ancient  Persians.  Does  this  need 
any  further  comment? 

The  supposition  that  the  Hebrews  knew  and  practiced  the  art  of 
shorthand  writing  has  no  better  foundation.  As  a  proof  that 
"  among  these  people,  the  foundation  and  elaboration  of  the  higher 
"  art  of  shorthand  writing,  based  upon  abbreviations  of  writing,  is 
"  mainly  to  be  sought,"  Gabelsberger  adduces  as  his  authorities  Bib- 
liander  and  Rader.  Although  the  words  of  the  former,  under  the 
heading,  de  notis,  and  those  of  the  latter,  in  a  translation  of  the  well- 
known  epigram  of  Martial  upon  a  quick  writer,  merely  suggest  that 
abbreviations  were  used,  while  from  the  tenor  of  these  authors' 
works  they  seem  to  have  considered  these  abbreviations  as  short- 
hand writing,  nothing  follows  from  this  but  the  fact  that  the 
Hebrews  used  letters  for  syllables  and  words,  and  words  for  whole 
sentences ;  a  mode  of  abbreviation  which  was  also  in  use  among 
other  nations,  but  is  by  no  means  necessarily  connected  with  a  sys- 
tematic art.  Moreover,  how  do  we  know  that  the  Hebrews  used  the 
above  named  abbreviations  for  stenographic  purposes,  and  not  rather, 
as  appears  far  more  probable,  for  the  purpose  of  secret  writing? 
Equally  weak  are  the  supports  given  and  based  upon  the  passages 
quoted  from  the  Bible  and  the  apochryphal  4th  book  of  Ezra.  Neither 
the  xlvth  Psalm,  verse  1  :  "  My  tongue  is  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer  ;" 
nor  Jeremiah,  Chap,  xxxvi,  verses  4  and  18  :  "  Then  Jeremiah  called 
"  Baruch  the  son  of  Neriah:  and  Baruch  wrote  from  the  mouth  of 
' '  Jeremiah  all  the  words  of  the  Lord,  which  he  had  spoken  unto 
"him,  upon  a  roll  of  a  book," — "He  pronounced  all  these  words 
"  unto  me  with  his  mouth,  and  I  wrote  them  with  ink  in  the  book," — 
impel  us  to  think  of  shorthand  writers. 

The    Hebrew    word  "l^fl/D  ^"   *^^*  passage  of  the  Psalm  may 

mean  "conversant"  as  well  as  "quick,"  but  "write  from  the 
mouth  "  is  nothing  else  than  writing  from  dictation  ;  and  as  regards 
the  proof  of  the  passages  from  the  so-called  4th  book  of  Ezra, 
which  read  as  follows  :  "But  thou  take  with  thee  many  tablets  and 
take  with  thee  .Sareas,  Dabrias,  Semelias,  Echanas  and  Asiel,  these 


five  men,  because  they  are  ready  to  write,"  ("  skilled  in  quick  writ- 
ing") ;  but  in  the  40  days  94  (204)  books  were  written,"  we  have 
to  oppose  the  fact  that  this  alleged  book  of  Ezra,  which  was  compiled 
from  94  to  95  A.  D.  by  a  Jew  who  knew  how  to  imitate  skilfully  the 
older  prophets,  only  exists  in  translations — a  Latin,  an  Arabic  and  an 
Ethiopian- Abyssinian  ;  that  the  texts  of  these  translations  in  manj^ 
instances  differ  from  one  another,  not  even  all  of  them  containing  the 
book  complete  ;  that  the  translation  which  is  referred  to  by  the  oppos- 
ing demonstrators  is  the  most  corrupted;  and  that,  finally,  even  apart 
from  all  this,  no  plausible  reason  exists  which  compels  us  to  recog- 
nize in  the  above  named  five  writers,  shorthand  writers,  but  merely 
writers  of  common  writing,  who  generally  or  always  were  found 
among  the  Hebrews,  carrjing  their  writing  materials  with  them  in 
a  belt  fastened  to  a  little  chain.  The  argument  which  Gabelsberger 
borrows  from  the  quantity  of  matter  the  five  writers  wrote  in  40 
days  is  considerably  shaken  when  we  read  instead  of  tlie  Latin  trans- 
lation, which  is  "  dvcenti  quatuor,"  204,  the  other  and  better  texts, 
"  nonagtnta  qnatuor,"  94,  for  in  that  case  not  quite  one-half  of  a 
book,  instead  of  more  than  a  whole  book,  comes  to  the  share  of  each 
writer.  But  since  a  "  book  "  is  a  most  indefinite  quantity  with  regard 
to  volume  and  contents,  and  according  to  the  mode  of  expression  of 
those  days  corresponds  to  our  "paragraph"  or  "chapter," 
evidence  based  upon  such  vague  expressions  is  of  course  no 
proof.  Nowhere  do  we  find  distinct  mention  of  shorthand  writers 
in  any  of  the  writings  of  the  Jews  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  while 
such  allusion  naturally  should  be  expected  if  the  art  had  flourished 
among  that  people  in  those  days.  Neither  do  w^e  meet  any  express 
references  to  the  art  among  Jewish  authors  of  a  later  period.  The 
Hebrews  preserved  with  a  faithful  conscientiousness  everything  per- 
taining to  their  theocracy  up  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  This 
adherence  to  earlier  things  went  to  the  extent  of  pettj'  pedantry. 
Had  they  once  had  a  stenographic  alphabet  they  would  have  pre- 
served it.  The  suppositious  statement  at  one  time  attributed  to  St. 
Paul  "that  even  at  the  courts  of  the  temple  and  synagogue  of 
"Jerusalem,  a  kind  of  shorthand  writers  were  employed  as  record- 
"  ers,  and  that,  from  documents  of  this  kind,  the  Christians  might 
"  have  collected  copies  after  the  death  of  Jesus  ;  especially,  as  schol- 
"  ars  and  priests  were  found  among  the  adherents  of  Jesus," — lacks 
all  historical  foundation,  as  Wegscheider,  in  our  opinion,  has  full}' 
demonstrated. 

Finally,  Gabelsberger  acknowledges  and  regrets,  as  does  also 
Anders,  that  positive  proofs  of  real  Hebrew  shorthand  writing  have 
not  been  handed  down  to  our  times.  But  as  the  evidence  furnished 
in  support  of  the  views  contested  by  us,  has  not  proven  tenable,  we 
have  no  reason  to  wonder  at  the  fact  that  hitherto  no  evidence  of 
Hebrew  tachygraphy  has  been  found.  This  fact  rather  tends  to  sus- 
tain our  doubts  as  to  the  existence  of  this  art  in  Judea. 


As  to  the  alleged  possession  of  shorthand  writing  by  the  ancient 
Indians,  enough  has  been  said  by  Dr.  Mitzschke.  He  has  demon- 
strated that  there  cannot  consistently  be  any  talk  of  an  Indian  sten- 
ography. The  same  author  refutes  the  opinion  that  the  existence 
of  shorthand  writing  among  the  Armenians  can  be  inferred  from 
the  words  of  the  Armenian  evangelist,  Agathangelos,  (who  died  352): 
"  The  secretaries  of  the  king  Tiridates  noted  down  with  signs  everj'- 
"  thing  that  the  holy  man  spoke,"  and  again,  "they  came  thither, 
"and  after  they  had  noted  down  with  signs  all  the  words  of  the 
"  saints,  they  read  the  same  to  the  king." 

The  Chinese  possess  among  their  three  forms  of  writing  a  sort  of 
quick  writing  called  tsa5  schu,  or  grass  writing,  in  which  the  writ- 
ing pencil  does  not  leave  the  paper,  and  in  which  the  various  indi- 
vidual strokes,  of  which  a  character  consists,  are  made  in  one  move- 
ment. The  brush  which  describes  the  direction  of  the  several 
strokes  gives  also  an  outline  of  a  character,  but  without  any  very 
distinct  expression  of  details.  The  tsa5  writing  is  tachygraphy,  and 
space  is  not  spared.  The  written  strokes  appear  in  manifold  twist- 
ings,  so  that  i1  requires  not  a  little  practice  and  a  considerable  knowl- 
edge of  the  language  to  be  able  to  read  these  signs,  allowing  much 
scope  to  the  will  of  the  writer  to  bring  forth  many  very  peculiar 
characters  with  each  stroke  of  tlie  brush.  This  mode  of  writing  is  said 
to  date  from  the  period  of  the  Han  dynasty.  Its  invention  is  ascribed 
to  the  various  scholars  who  lived  during  the  period  from  48  to  80 
A.  D.  As  regards  Japan,  writing  there  was  at  first  with  Chinese 
characters,  but  subsequently  these  were  abbreviated,  and  only  indi- 
vidual characteristic  elements  were  taken  and  used  as  phonetic  signs. 
From  the  printed  characters  arose  the  Katakana,  and  from  the 
quick  writing  the  Hiragana.  Stenographic,  that  is,  space-saving 
signs,  often  occurred  in  epistolary  style  for  frequently  occurring 
words.  In  our  days,  a  manual  of  tachygraphy  is  said  to  have  been 
published  at  Yokohama,  but  inquiries  made  directly  at  the  Japanese 
embassy  at  Berlin  cause  us  to  doubt  the  existence  in  Japan  of  a  sten- 
ography in  its  more  restricted  sense. 

The  modern  Persians  likewise  possess  a  sort  of  quick  writing. 
Wilken  in  his  "  Rudiments  of  the  Persian  Language,"  (Leipsig, 
1805)  says  in  regard  to  it:  "In  their  letters  they  frequently  omit, 
"  especially  in  intelligently  written  compositions,  diacritical  points 
"of  sentences  ;  this  they  call  Schekestheh,  that  is,  broken  sentence 
"writing."  Furthermore,  we  read,  with  regard  to  the  nature  and 
the  use  of  this  writing,  in  the  "Phonetic  Journal"  (1869,  P.  146): 
"  Is  is  used  in  all  the  courts  of  law,  and  it  is  found  quite  sufficient 
"for  the  purpose  of  taking  down  the  evidence  of  witnesses.  As 
"  making  set  speeches  is  a  thing  almost  unknown  in  India,  there  has 
"  never  been  a  necessitj'  felt  for  anything  more  rapid  than  this 
"  shikest.     I  have  often  been  present  when  the  magistrate's  clerk 


' '  (Sheristatar)  was  taking  down  the  actual  spoken  evidence  of  some 
"  native  witness,  and  I  have  found  it,  afterwards,  to  be  quite  ver- 
"  batim.  They  leave  out  all  the  vowels,  just  as  we  do.  I  cannot  say 
'  •  much  for  the  legibility  of  their  reports.  I  am  sure  of  one  thing  ; 
"  they  would  never  be  tit  to  go  to  press  ;  but  in  the  matter  of  speed, 
"  this  system  of  writing  is  but  little  behind  our  own.  To  obtain  a 
' '  degree  in  this  branch  of  learning  is  looked  upon  as  a  great  honor, 
"  and  this  degree,  which  is  called  Chisnovisi,  is  considered  quite  as 
"  grand  a  thing  to  attain  as  our  degree  of  LL.  D." 

In  an  article  headed  "  On  the  Tachygraphy  of  the  Greeks,"  in  the 
periodical  "Hermes"  11th  volume,  pages  443  to  457,  Dr.  Gard- 
thausen,  of  Leipzig,  endeavors  to  refute  the  supposition  that  the  in- 
troduction of  stenography  among  the  Greeks  was  antedated  by  sten- 
ography among  the  Romans.  He  expresses  himself  thus  :  "  Still 
' '  more  perplexing  than  the  variety  of  opinions  regarding  the  time  of 
"  the  invention  of  the  Grecian  tachygraphy,  is  the  supposition  that 
"  the  Tironean  Notes  were  the  very  prototype  of  Grecian  tachygra- 
"  phy,  for  not  only  would  thereby  the  relation  of  giving  and  taking, 
"  as  in  fact  it  existed  between  the  two  nations,  be  completely  (?)  re- 
"  versed,  but  that  we  find  the  Greek  letters  in  the  Tironean  alphabet 
"would  also  be  inexplicable."  Mr.  Gardthausen  can  not  dispute 
the  possibility  that  the  rules  of  giving  and  taking  in  a  special  case 
could  have  been  reversed  without  thereby  completely  reversing  the  re- 
lation of  giving  and  taking.  But  the  appearance  of  Greek  letters  in 
the  Tironean  alphabet,  is  not  strange  to  him  who  remembers  that 
the  lists  of  Tironean  Notes  did  not  originate  at  the  same  time  with 
the  alphabet.  The  subsequent  introduction  of  Greek  words  into  the 
note  commentaries  was  the  occasion  for  the  employment  of  Greek 
letters.  Has  it,  in  fact,  been  otherwise  with  the  common  Latin 
alphabet,  which  orignally  contained  neither  the  aspirates  nor  the 
letters  z  or  y  ?  Again,  Mr.  Gardthausen  says  :  "  But  what  surprises 
"  us  most  is  that  the  practical  requirements  of  the  Greeks  should  not 
"have  led  to  this  invention;  inasmuch  as  wherever  judicial  and  po- 
"litical  eloquence  exists,  this  invention  naturally  suggests  itself." 
Mr.  Gardthausen  does  not  mention  that  others  before  him  had  enter- 
tained the  same  view,  nor  that  on  page  9  of  the  history  of  the  art  of 
quick- writing,  discussions  are  found  referring  to  actual  counter  reasons, 
for  which  a  Greek  tachygraphy  could  not  be  claimed  at  so  early  a  period 
as  Mr.  Gardthausen  thinks.  In  this  case,  all  should  have  been  spe- 
cially refuted  that  has  been  adduced  in  other  places,  according  to 
Schneider's  precedent,  against  the  supposition  that  uxotrrj/ieiouffi^at 
means  stenography.  Mr.  Gardthausen,  while  occupying  himself  ex- 
clusively with  the  passage  of  Diogenes  of  Laertius,  referring  to 
Xcnophon,  wholly  ignores  the  parallel  expression,  uTzoffrj/istoKTecq 
iTTocelTo,  explanatory  of  :  unoffr^iieiooaf^ai^  which  the  same  Diogenes 
xises  with  reference  to  the  mnemotechnic  {Jhv  iixvy^fiuvsue'/)  minutes, 


which  the  Athenian  gxuTOToiioq  Simon  made  of  the  colloquies  of  So- 
crates !  Hence,  it  is  obvious  that  in  the  passage  of  Diogenes  the 
V7:o(r/j;isti>offi9at,  in  consequence  of  the  well-known  significations  of 
the  preposition  (Stto^  may  mean  either  to  make  "  jottings,  or  noting- 
down,  without  the  knowledge  of  others  ;"  or,  as  seems  more  likely, 
"  before  and  after  writing."  So  long  as  it  has  not  been  proven,  and 
Mr.  Gardthausen  has  forgotten  to  prove  it,  that  this  conception  and 
translation  of  the  passages  of  Diogenes  are  false,  it  remains  simply 
an  uncorroborated  assertion  that  urofTTjrjLetw  is  a  technical  expression 
for  tachygraphically  noting  down.  It  is  difficult  to  see,  without 
petitio  pnncipii,  how,  in  the  words  from  the  Church  history  of.  Eu- 
sebius,  page  283A,  and  from  the  letters  of  Pliny,  1,  10,  an  allu- 
sion to  tachygraphic  notes  can  be  found.  Obviously,  the  preposition 
UTZo  in  this  case,  just  as  the  Latin  sub  in  subnoto  (and  subsigno) 
in  Pliny,  retains  its  original  literary  signification,  so  that 
v-o<njfj.£touff'9^at  in  Eusebius  and  subnoto  {subsigno)  in  Pliny  are 
synonymous  with  brarfpafpim  and  subscribere,  a  relationship  which 
is  apparent  in  other  passages  as  well,  and  also  between  the  nouns 
VTzoofjixeiwaiq  and  bizoypafr,,  snbsig/tatio  and  svbscriptio  respectively, 
the  same  as  in  our  "  undersigned  "  and  "underwritten."  So  when, 
further,  Mr.  Gardthausen,  in  proof  of  his  assertion,  refers  to  the  fact 
that  a  number  of  papygraphical  documents  have  become  known 
which  contain  tachygraphic  notes ;  and  in  this  respect  especially 
points  out  the  explanation  of  an  Egyptian  document  on  papyrus, 
published  in  the  year  1821  by  Bockh,  in  which  explanation  we  read  : 
' '  Among  others,  an  illegible  signature  not  written  with  the  common 
"letters,  but  with  tachygrapliic  notes,  like  the  Tironean  Notes 
"of  the  Romans.  Of  this  species  Kopp,  Tach.  vett.  I,  435,  «fcc., 
"  says:  I  did  not  succeed,  however,  in  deciphering  this  signature  by 
"  comparing  it  with  the  notes  edited  by  him.  I  might  have  been  in- 
"  clined  to  suppose  that  the  name  Apollonios  is  contained  in  the 
"  features  of  the  latter  kind  of  writing  ;"  but  when  he,  contrary  to 
B6ckh  and  Leemans,  explains  this  signature  as  a  tachy graphical  des- 
ignation of  the  names  Kkso-dzpa  IlTokeiidloq^  and  in  so  doing  be- 
lieves himself  to  have  proven  the  great  age  of  Grecian  tachy gi-aphy, 
then  we  have  ground  to  strongly  doubt  the  correctness  of  this  de- 
ciphering. 

If,  indeed,  all  these  individual  letters  are  expressed  in  the  written 
characters  of  the  B5ckh  papyrus,  then,  it  is  at  best  a  tachygraphy  no 
more  deserving  the  name  than  our  so-called  small  Greek  and 
Latin  letters  would  deserve  that  name  when  used  as  abbreviations  of 
the  corresponding  majusculse  (capital  letters).  But  this  is  at 
least  not  tachygraphy  or  stenography  of  the  kind  found  in  the 
Tironean  Notes,     The  nature  of  stenography  consists  in  the  simpli- 


8 

fication  and  at  the  same  time  the  omission  of  letters.  While,  there- 
fore, the  ancient  Latin  stenography  writes  C  (o)  P  (t)  a,  for  Cleopatra 
and  P  (o)  L  M  us,  for  Ptolemus,  thus  only  designating  the  main  con- 
sonants together  with  the  respective  terminations  ;  the  Greek  tachyg- 
raphy,  the  alleged  prototype  of  the  Roman,  is  claimed  to  have 
brought  out  expression  of  all  individual  letters.  If  advanced  to  such 
completeness  of  phonetic  writing,  Greek  tachygraphy  would  have 
gone  far  beyond,  not  only  ancient,  but  the  later  invented  Latin  sjdla- 
ble  stenography.  Now  regarding  the  alleged  undersigned  names  them- 
selves! That  the  Bockh  papyrus  originates  from  the  year  105  B.  C. 
(not  104 — see  BOckh's  Monograph  V,  208  and  214),  is  certainly  with- 
out doubt.  On  the  other  hand,  it  requires  an  unusual  degree  of 
credulity  to  suppose  that  the  names  of  officers  or  other  interested  par- 
ties are  not  there  (compared  with  the  signatures  of  the  third  section  : 
Ai  [ovufftoi;]  Tpa7:£$iTrjq)j  but,  that  the  names  of  two  royal  person- 
ages should  be  found  as  signatures  to  these  documents  concerning  the 
sale  of  a  lot  of  ground  which  passed  from  the  hands  of  Pamonthes, 
Enachomneus,  Sam.  Persinei,  M.  Persinei,  into  the  hands  of  the 
Nechutes !  And  why  should  the  signatures  of  the  two  royal 
personages  be  signed  at  the  end  of  a  document  concerning  a 
sale  in  which  these  persons,  according  to  the  contents  of  the  docu- 
ment, were  not  in  any  way  interested?  If  "  the  royal  street  "  appears 
as  the  southern  limit  of  the  estate  (if  the  word  "  pu/xrj  "  is  properly 
read)  that  does  not  prove  any  title  to  or  participation  in  the  deed  by 
the  persons  named,  while  the  rather  voluminous  text  which  forms 
the  beginning  of  the  document  appears  a  chronological  abstract,  or 
some  similar  signification,  such  as  the  first  words  of  our  notarial  in- 
struments. The  better  supposition  is,  that  in  the  signature,  the 
"  demotic  "  manner  of  writing  occurs,  for  the  deciphering  of  which 
the  Egyptologists  may  render  useful  service.  In  short,  the  proof  for 
the  antedate  of  Greek  tachygraphy  in  opposition  to  the  Latin,  has  not 
been  produced  ;  and  whether  Greek  priority  can  be  shown  by  the 
papyrii  in  Paris,  Leyden  and  Berlin,  remains  to  be  seen. 

WHO  WAS  THE    INVENTOR  ? 

"Who,  then,  was  the  inventor  of  sign-writing?"  asksLipsius  in  his 
well-known  letter  to  Lessius,  and  he  answers  this  question  with  the 
words:  "I  would  award  the  fame  to  the  Greeks  and  especially  to 
"the  philosopher  and  historian  Xenophon,  of  whom  Diogenes  says  : 
"  '  He  was  the  first  to  note  down  the  sayings  of  Socrates  and  to 
"publish  them.'"  This  passage  in  Diogenes  Laertius  seems  to 
have  given  an  impulse  to  the  view  hitherto  deemed  incontrovertible, 
that  Xenophon  had  tachygraphed  the  speeches  of  Socrates.  Why 
should  we  then  wonder  that  this  art  flourished  among  the  ancient 
Greeks?  "  The  ardent  wish  to  have  the  lectures  of  such  famous 
"teachers,  the  orations  of  such  distinguished  men,  in  the  public 
"assemblies,  verbatim,  was  a  natural  one.     These  lectures  could  be 


0 

"heard  only  by  a  small  portion  of  the  people  ;  but  it  was  desirable 
"to  bring  them  speedily  to  the  knowledge  of  the  whole  people,  and 
"many  a  one  who  himself  had  heard  these  most  beautiful  produc- 
"  tions  of  spontaneous  inspiration  and  enthusiasm,  felt  a  necessity  to 
"  fix  them  and  preserve  them  for  subsequent  generations.  This  re- 
' '  quirement  was  fully  met  by  stenography. "  Does  it  not  seem  quite 
self-evident  that  this  important  art  was  considered  an  independent 
branch  and  was  taught  in  the  schools?  Is  it  not  more  than  probable 
that  beside  the  orations  of  the  philosophers  and  the  statesmen,  the 
court  proceedings  and  those  of  the  council  of  the  "  Amphictyons " 
were  also  noted  down  by  shorthand  writers?  Was  not  the  "  golden 
age  of  Greece  "  also  the  prime  period  of  Greek  shorthand  writing? 

Natural  and  well-founded  as  this  whole  train  of  ideas  may  appear, 
we  doubt  the  correctness  of  these  hitherto  prevalent  views  concerning 
the  antiquity  of  the  art,  and  cannot  refrain  from  stating  our  contra- 
dictory conviction,  and  are  ready  to  present  our  proof. 

As  has  been  intimated  before,  this  whole  fabric  of  ingenius  hy- 
potheses and  inferences  is  based  upon  a  passage  in  Diogenes  Laertius, 
an  author  who  lived  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century  of  our 
era.  The  above  given  versions  of  this  author  have  been  translated 
very  differently  into  Latin.  That  translation  in  which  a  tachy- 
grapliic  noting  down  of  the  sayings  of  Socrates  is  not  claimed,  is  indis- 
putably the  correct  one,  for  in  the  meaning  of  the  words  uTzoarnxziou} 
or  bi:oarj[i£i6o[iai  there  is  not  the  slightest  allusion  to  any  quick 
writing;  it  only  means  to  "note  down,"  not  to  write  down  tachy- 
graphically.  Even  in  other  languages,  cultivated  as  well  as  barbar- 
ous, "  to  make  signs  "  is  equivalent  to  "writing."  That  we  cannot 
be  justified  in  inferring  the  existence  of  a  tachygraphy  with  the  an- 
cient Greeks  upon  the  ground  of  the  frequently  mentioned  passages 
of  Diogenes,  or  even  by  the  alleged  fact  that  Xenophon  was  the  in- 
ventor of  the  .same,  has  already  been  expressed  by  Schneider  in  his 
edition  of  the  "  Xenophonic  Notables."  He  says:  "He  who  first 
"  translated  d:r»/7.vjj_ri«i/£(3//aTa  as  '  menu/rabilia,'  whether  it  was  by 
"  Victorius,  or  whoever  else,  has  neither  expressed  himself  in  good 
"  Latin  nor  faithfully  rendered  the  meaning  of  the  word.  The  word 
"  itself  proves  that  the  observation  of  Weiskeis  erroneous,  when  he, 
' '  (because  Diogenes  Laertius  says  that  Xenophon  had  noted  down 
' '  what  he  narrates  about  Socrates)  refers  to  this  quotation  as  a  proof 
"  of  tachygraphy,  and  tells  us  that  through  its  practice  Xenophon 
' '  had  been  enabled  to  note  down  and  publish  the  speeclies  of 
"  Socrates,  and,  like  Lipsius,  (letter  27  of  the  1st  hundred  to  the  Bel- 
' '  gians)  makes  Xenophon  the  inventor  of  tachygraphy.  The 
' '  learned  gentleman  should  have  remembered  what  he  himself  says 
"subsequently,  quoting  from  Diogenes,  of  Simon,  a  pupil  of  Soc- 
"  rates,  who,  as  soon  as  he  had  left  his  teacher,  noted  down  every- 
"  thing  that  he  could  remember.  The  opinions  of  those  who  claim 
2 


10 

"  that  the  art  of  quick  writing  was  invented  in  the  age  of  Xenophon, 
"  and  even  go  so  far  as  to  make  this  philosopher  the  inventor  of 
"' shorthand,' are  simply  absurd."  Golden  words,  which  like  the 
voice  of  the  preacher  in  the  wilderness,  have  died  away  unnoticed  ! 
The  second  passage  in  Diogenes  to  which  Schneider  refers,  is  found 
in  Chap,  xiii,  book  3nd,  and  reads  as  follows :  "  Simon,  of 
"  Athens,  the  shoemaker,  wrote  down  as  often  as  Socrates  came  to 
"his workshop  and  had  conversation  with  him,  all  tJiat  lie  remem- 
'^bered."  Thus  the  cobbler  Simon  wrote  down  from  Jm  inemoi'y  the 
speeches  or  talks  which  Socrates  had  had  with  him.  In  both  pas- 
sages, of  Xenophon  as  of  Simon,  Diogenes  uses  the  word 
vTzoffTj^xetuo/xac.  But  we  see  plainly  and  clearly  that  neither  here 
nor  there,  tachygraphic  writing  is  to  be  thought  of,  and  that  neither  the 
dTzo/xvTj/ioyeufjLara,  (memorabilia)  of  Xenophon,  nor  the  axuruin 
SiaXuyoc,  (the  cobbler's  conversations)  are  based  upon  any  sfun-thand 
writing ! 

No  more  are  we  justified  in  tliiuking  that  those  were  stenographers, 
who,  at  the  command  of  Phillip  of  Macedon,  noted  down  the  humor- 
ous speeches  which  the  Club  of  Sixtj'^  made  at  Diomea,  a  suburb  of 
Athens,  at  the  carnival  of  Hercules. 

Among  stenographers,  Lewis  seems  to  have  been  the  first  who 
doubted  the  correctness  of  the  time  hallowed  opinion  contested  by 
us.  Isaac  Pitman  also  says  in  his  Histoiy  of  Shorthand:  "  Diogenes 
"  Laertius  has  been  made  to  say  that  Xenophon  first  took  down  the 
"sayings  of  Socrates  in  notes,  but  the  original  text  may  mean  that 
"he  merely  noted  down  the  sayings  of  Socrates."  After  we  thus 
have  sufl[iciently  shown  that  the  evidence  of  quick  writing  as  sup- 
posed to  have  flourished  among  the  ancient  Greeks,  cannot  consist- 
ently be  based  upon  the  frequently  mentioned  passage  of  Diogenes, 
we  next  ask  whether  anj-where  else  in  the  writings  of  that  people  evi- 
dence exists  in  support  of  that  assumption? 

"  Apart  from  the  great  historians  and  orators  of  the  Greek  people, 
"  who  must  ever  be  regarded  as  the  foundation  and  source  of  erudition, 
"  there  appears  to  be  a  lack  of  allusions  to  public  life  in  some  of  the 
"writings  of  the  remaining  authors  of  that  period,  and  when  this 
"spirit  faded  away  it  was  replaced  by  learned  efforts  to  collect  ma- 
"  terial,  the  result  of  which  we  now  find  partly  embodied  in  the  com- 
"  mentaries  on  authors  of  the  classical  period  and  partly  in  the  works 
"  of  the  lexicographers  Pollux,  Harpocrates,  Hesj-chius,  Suidas,  &c." 
These  compilations  of  the  public  as  well  as  the  private  lives  of  the 
Greeks  furnish  us  with  material  for  exhaustive  information.  The 
most  insignificant  mattere  not  worthy  of  mention  were  taken  up  and 
preserved  ;  such,  for  instance,  as  the  skill  of  Kallikratides  and  Myrme- 
kides,  who  wrote  a  plaintive  distich  with  golden  letters  upon  a  grain 
of  sesame,  &c. ! 


11 

if  we  consider  what  value  and  significance  the  art  of  oratory  had 
in  Greece; — that  it  was  the  constant  companion  of  statesmanship;  if 
we  consider  (which  is  undoubtedly  the  case)  that  mention  was  made 
in  the  writings  of  the  ancients  and  by  the  commentators  on  the  same, 
of  all  particulars  regarding  public  oratory, — then  it  is  equally  sure 
that  so  powerful  an  innovation  as  shorthand  writing,  the  best  servant 
of  oratory,  would  have  been  mentioned^  not  merely  incidentally,  but 
specifically,  if  this  art  had  really  been  invented  and  practiced  in  Greece 
before  the  days  of  Cicero.  If  we  succeed  in  furnishing  the  evidence 
of  such  omission,  which,  in  this  connection,  is  especially  important, 
then  we  have  virtually  refuted  the  testimony  of  our  opponents  and 
proven  their  argumentative  premises  untenable. 

Primarily,  let  us  ask:  If  a  contemporary  of  Xenophon  knew  any- 
thing about  tachygraphy,  how  is  it  that  no  one  alluded  to  this  art  ?  We 
even  find  a  passage  from  which  proof  against  the  existence  of  this  art 
can  easily  be  adduced.  We  allude  to  the  words  of  Thucydides:  "As 
"regards  the  speeches  made  by  the  individuals,  either  when  they 
' '  were  about  to  begin  the  war  or  when  they  were  fairly  in  it,  it  was 
"  difficult  for  me  to  retain  in  the  memory  with  accuracy  that  which 
"had  been  spoken  and  heard  by  myself,  as  well  as  that  which  was 
"  reported  to  me  from  other  places;  but  as  the  individuals,  according 
"to  my  opinion,  seem  to  have  spoken  most  appropriately  upon  the 
"subject  in  question,  I  shall  here  give,  as  nearly  as  possible,  the 
"whole  meaning  or  sense  of  what  was  said." 

If  the  art  of  shorthand  writing  had  been  current  in  Greece,  we  are 
justly  astonished  that  Thucydides,  one  of  the  best  informed  and  most 
distinguished  men  of  Athens,  was  ignorant  of  this  art  or  did  not  avail 
himself  of  it,  when  its  particular  use  was  that  of  recording  speeches 
verbatim!  Instead,  we  hear  him  complain  of  difficulties  in  reproduc- 
ing the  speeches  he  had  heard,  from  memory.  But  it  was  not  only 
himself  who  fell  the  want  of  shorthand  ;  all  his  reporters  and  friends 
as  well  (and  he  had  such  in  various  parts  of  Greece)  could  not  report 
to  him  the  accurate  wording  of  the  speeches.  He  expressly  declares 
that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  render  the  orations  with  sharp  ac- 
curacy— and  yet  it  is  claimed  that  the  art  of  shorthand  writing  was 
known  to  the  Greeks  at  that  time! 

As  in  the  case  of  Thucydides,  all  subsequent  Greek  historians 
reproduced  the  speeches  of  their  heroes  from  memory;  nowhere 
amongst  them  do  we  find  an  authentic  oration. 

We  find  the  .same  record  in  regard  to  the  Grecian  political  orators 
themselves.  As  far  as  our  information  of  their  orations  goes,  from 
the  prime  of  oratory  to  its  decline,  nowhere  is  allusion  made  to  the  art 
of  quick-writing.  On  the  other  hand,  among  the  Romans  after 
Cicero's  time,  stenographers  are  mentioned,  praised  and  censured. 

Though  the  silence  of  the  Greek  authors  concerning  stenography 
proves  sufficiently  the  non-existence  of  this  art  at  that  time,  we  have  to 


12 

draw  further  proofs  for  the  truth  of  our  assertion  from  the  nature  of 
the  oratory  of  the  ancients.  Let  us  for  that  purpose  examine  the  fate 
of  the  speeches,  if  we  may  use  the  phrase,  from  their  inception  to 
their  publication !  We  know  tliat  whoever  could  avoid  it ,  did  not  ex- 
temporize. Of  the  powerful  orator  Demosthenes,  Plutarch  relates 
that  he  often  was  urged  to  speak  by  the  multitude,  but  that  he  never 
uttered  a  word  unless  he  had  thoroughly  prepared  himself. 
All  speeches,  before  being  delivered,  were  prepared  with  the 
greatest  care.  Then  they  were  delivered  at  a  favorable  moment  with 
the  employment  of  all  the  aids  of  the  so-called  physical  oratory,  which 
even  the  greatest  of  orators  did  not  disdain  to  make  use  of,  the  aquire- 
ment  and  proper  use  of  which  formed  a  special  study.  The  effect  of 
these  speeches,  naturally,  greatly  depended  on  the  momentary  moods 
of  the  multitude,  and  on  the  wise  use  of  the  same,  as  well  as  on  decla- 
mation and  gesticulation.  Even  tachygraphy,  if  it  had  been  invented 
and  practiced  in  those  days,  would  not  have  been  able  to  catch  the  vola- 
tile .spirit  and  charm  of  the  oration,  which  constituted,  perhaps,  one- 
half  of  its  force.  Those  orators  spoke  for  their  hearers,  not  for  read- 
ers. For  the  latter,  these  same  speeches,  if  well  received,  were  once 
more  carefully  elaborated  and  preserved,  as  monuments  of  oratorical 
art.  Dionysius  of  Halikamassus,  makes  no  difference  between  the 
edited  and  copied  orations  ;  his  full  remarks  on  the  speeches  and  their 
style  presuppose  throughout  their  written  composition,  while  after 
the  invention  of  tachygraphy,  the  application  of  the  same  for  the  ver- 
batim noting  down  of  speeches,  is  often  mentioned.  Thus  Plutarch 
(who,  in  the  life  of  tlie  younger  Cato,  expresses  thanks  to  the  instru- 
mentality of  Cicero  that  a  speech  of  Cato  had  been  noted  down  by 
quick  writers  and  in  this  way  was  preserved),  knows  nothing  of  any 
such  writing  down  of  any  speech  of  Demosthenes. 

As  regards  the  administration  of  justice  among  the  Greeks,  tachy- 
graphy was  not  in  use  up  to  Cicero's  time. 

It  is  doubtful  and  even  improbable  that  speeches  were  made  at  the 
sessions  of  the  Diaetetes  courts.  At  the  sessions  of  the  Areopagiis  the 
plaintiffs  and  defendants  were  allowed  to  make  two  speeches  each, 
but  they  had  to  be  delivered  extempore,  and  had  to  be  free  from  all 
irrelevant  matter  and  oratorical  ornamentation.  "Make  no  long  pro- 
logue and  abstain  from  all  ornamentation,"  cried  the  herald  to  the 
speakers.  In  neither  of  these  cases  was  there  a  neces.sity  to  preserve 
the  details  of  these  short  proceedings.  The  real  theatre  of  judicial 
oratory  was  no  doubt  in  the  HeUias(ie  tribunals.  Here  each  partj'was 
entitled  to  take  the  floor  twice.  The  time  allowed  for  each  speech 
was  measured  by  a  water-clock.  Those  Avho  had  no  talents  for  com- 
posing such  a  speech  had  one  written  for  money  by  a  logograpJier,  or 
they  applied  for  that  purpose  to  a  friend.  The  tendency  of  the 
speech  aimed  especially  at  exciting  the  emotions  and  fanning  the 
passions,  sometimes  that  of  scorn,  sometimes  that  of  pity.     In  these 


13 

tribunals,  if  anywhere,  the  art  of  shorthand  writing  would  have  been 
employed  if  this  important  auxiliary  of  eloquence  had  been  known  at 
the  time.  The  civil  service  in  Greece  was  as  varied  and  systematic- 
cally  organized  as  in  any  modern  State.  Pollux  composed  a  list  of 
the  public  writers  in  Athens.  "In  the  various  branches  of  public 
"administration,"  says  Wachsmuth,  "where  writing  was  a  neces- 
"sity,  there  were  numerous  employees,  as  is  to  be. expected 
"of  a  people  who  were  so  fertile  in  literary  productions  of 
"all  kinds,  and  among  whom  the  humblest  knew  how  to  write. 
"Consequently,  there  must  have  been  considerable  difference  in 
' '  rank  from  the  chief  writers  of  the  State  down  to  the  writer  for  a 
"livelihood." 

But  nowhere  is  mention  made  of  tachygraphers  who  noted  down 
court  proceedings  at  the  command  of  the  judges,  or  served  as  short- 
hand recorders,  or  even  as  note  takers  in  the  interest  of  the  public  in 
causes  ciUbres,  which,  as  we  know,  were  of  quite  frequent  occur- 
rence, whilst,  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  mention  is  repeatedly  made  of 
competent  quick  writers,  who  were  on  duty  in  the  courts  of  justice. 
We  refer  here,  among  others,  to  the  words  of  Proaresius  in  Euna- 
pius:  "  I  wish  that  quick  writers  be  given  to  me  and  assigned  to  a 
' '  place  before  the  eyes  of  all,  that  they  may  daily  note  down  the  sen- 
"  fences  of  Themis;  while,  this  day,  I  want  them  to  follow  me  word 
"for  word." 

With  regard,  finally,  to  the  question  whether  at  the  sessions  of  the 
AmpJiictyans  the  art  had  been  prasticed,  we  know  of  no  recorded 
passage  which  could  justify  such  a  belief,  either  in  the  writings  of 
the  ancients  or  in  the  monographs  of  the  moderns.  The  more  im- 
portant resolutions  of  this  council  were  engraved  upon  stone  tablets, 
which  sometimes  were  broken  by  those  against  whom  the  resolu- 
tions were  directed.  As  this  tribunal  of  the  AmpJdctyons,  "  whose 
' '  origin  cannot  be  clearly  recognized  in  the  dawn  of  the  early  morn- 
"  ing  of  Greek  history,  vanishes  again  unnoticed  in  that  dusk  which 
"  shrouds  the  later  evening  of  Greek  history  more  than  that  of  any 
"other  people,"  it  may  not  lie  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  possible 
facts,  that  in  the  later  days  of  the  decline  of  Greece,  tachygraphy 
was  occasionally  employed  at  those  meetings  of  the  Greeks.  If, 
however,  any  one  is  inclined  as  a  friend  of  "  events  that  might  have 
happened,"  to  entertain  this  presumption,  it  would  unquestionably 
be  without  any  value  to  us,  as  it  refers  to  a  far  later  period  than  the 
one  with  which  we  have  to  do  in  this  chapter. 

With  regard  to  the  origin  of  quick-writing  among  the  Romans, 
Gabelsberger,  supported  by  the  words  of  Isidor  :  ' '  Common  signs 
were  invented — 1100 — by  Ennius,"  points  to  the  poet  Quintus  En- 
nius  of  Rudiaj,  of  whom  it  is  said,  that  he  "  was  as  conversant  with 
"  the  Latin  and  Greek,  as  with  the  Oscan,"-and  "had  applied  him- 
"  self  with  not  a  little  diligence  to  the  yet  uncultivated  language  of 


14 

'*  the  Romans  in  those  days,"  as  the  introducer  of  the  art  of  quick- 
writing  in  tlie  Roman  state.  Anders  differs  from  liis  predecessor 
regarding  this,  inasmuch  as  he  (probably  on  the  ground  of  an  utter- 
ance of  Sueton)  attributes  it  to  Ennius  Grammaticus,  known  "  as  a 
translator  and  language-builder,"  and  not  to  Ennius,  the  poet.  But 
apart  from  that  passage  in  Isidor,  the  writings  of  the  ancients  that  have 
come  down  to  us  do  not  contain  any  intelligence  that  attributes  such 
work  to  the  tragic  poet  and  philologist  (so  often  mentioned  by  Cicero 
and  Quintilian),  nor  to  the  younger  Ennius  mentioned  by  Sueton. 
The  statement  of  Isidor  is  highly  inaccurate.  This  author  seems  to 
have  published  his  ''Notices"  without  the  necessary  critique  and 
elaboration.  Evidence  of  this  is  found,  in  our  opinion,  in  the  verj' 
wording  of  some  passages  incoherently  connected  with  the  sentences 
immediately  following.  His  "  notes  "  have  been  explained  in  radi- 
cally contradictory  ways  ;  hence  the  criticism  of  many,  that  he 
contradicted  himself  ;  and  hence  Kopp's  attempt  to  refute  this  criti- 
cism as  unjustifiable.  In  consequence  of  these  facts,  the  statement 
of  Isidor  loses  considerable  in  weight.  His  statement  alone  is  insuf- 
ficient, especially  if  we  compare  it  Avith  the  words  of  Plutarch — 
an  author  who  wrote  about  100  A.  D.,  and  who,  therefore,  had  a 
better  understanding  of  the  period  in  question  than  Isidor — which 
we  have  quoted  on  a  previous  occasion,  when  the  manner  in  which 
Cicero  saved  a  speech  of  Cato,  the  younger,  was  described,  namely  : 
' '  for  as  yet  they  had  developed  neither  quick-writers  nor  did  they 
"  have  any,  but  were  just  entering  that  path."  His  statenient,  more- 
over, appears  insufficient  if  we  consider  the  quality  of  Isidor's  collec- 
tion. 

As  we  intend  in  the  next  chapter,  which  is  devoted  especially  to 
tachygraphy  of  the  Romans,  the  Tironean  Notes,  to  enter  upon 
the  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  words  of  Plutarch  (quoted  there  as 
well  as  here),  we  may  content  ourselves  for  the  present  with  having 
stated  our  conviction,  that  there  cannot  be  any  question  as  to  the 
non-existence  of  stenography  in  Rome  before  the  days  of  Cicero. 

As  in  the  present  section  we  have  dealt  with  unfounded  supposi- 
tions regarding  the  age  of  stenography,  we  now  enter  the  field  of  the 
real  historv  of  this  art. 


15 

ROMAN  AND  GREEK  SHORTHAND. 

l*i-im<yrdia  et  in^rementa,  quae  ceperit  tacJiygraphm 
Jiomana,  si  qui  nostris  temporibus  diligenter  eocplicare 
incipiunt,  ii  profecto  nequeacta  agere  videntur,  neque 
in  negotio,  versari  non  satis  digno  eruditoi'um  dili- 
gentia.  * 

Saiye  proleg.  ad  taehygr.  Rom. 

Prior  to  the  advent  of  tachygraphy  to  Rome,  the  necessity  for 
writing  faster  than  usual  seems  to  have  led  to  a  mode  of  abbrevia- 
tion, based  simply  upon  the  principle  of  designating  the  most  fre- 
quently occurring  words  by  an  initial  letter  of  the  word,  or  by  several 
initial  letters  ;  frequently  with  an  addition  of  the  middle  letters 
which  began  a  syllable,  and  often,  by  the  addition  of  one  or  more 
tinal  letters.  Marcus  Valerius  Probus,  of  Beryt,  a  famous  gram- 
marian who  lived  under  Nero  (54-68  A.  D.)  expressly  sa^s,  in 
his  treatise  on  the  abbreviations  that  had  formerly  been  in  use : 
"  Among  the  ancients  when  tachygraphy  was  not  yet  practiced, 
"  those  especially,  who  were  present  in  the  Senate,  for  the  purpose 
"of  writing  down  that  w^hich  had  been  said,  designated,  for  the 
"  sake  of  rapidity,  certain  words  and  names  with  initial  letters  only, 
"according  to  a  mutual  agreement,  and  what  these  several  letters 
' '  signified  was  clearly  understood. "  These  abbreviations  were  called 
singulae  lilerae  siglae ;  and  they  were  the  forerunners  of  genuine 
shorthand  writing. 

The  manner  in  which  the  most  literal  reports  were  made  before 
the  days  of  tachygraphical  help,  is  expressed  in  the  following  words 
of  Isidor,  bishop  of  Sevilla,  who  lived  in  the  first  third  of  the  seventh 
century.  He  describes  it  thus  :  "  Whatever  was  spoken  in  the  assem- 
"  bly  or  before  the  court,  was  written  down  at  the  same  time  by  the 
"  several  writers  present,  after  they  had  divided  amongst  themselves 
"their  respective  parts  and  had  agreed  on  how  many  words  each 
"  should  take  down,  and  in  what  order."  This  was  exactly  the  same 
procedure  which  was  current  under  the  name  of  the  polygraphic 
method,  in  the  earlier  days  among  the  Italian  quick  writers  in  Turin, 
and  which  has  already  been  fully  described  by  me  in  another  work  ; 
the  same  procedure  was  also  employed  by  the  twelve  Lords  of  the 
Round-table  of  Leodey's  in  taking  down  the  proceedings  of  the  na- 
tional constitutional  and  legislative  assembly  of  France  in  the  last 
decade  of  the  last  century. 

Passing  from  the  sigUie  (which  for  a  long  time  served  as  a  substitute 
for  tachygraphy,  and  which,  even  after  shorthand  writing  had  been 
invented,  was  constantly  used  in  public  and  private  life)  to  the 
Roman  quick-writing,  we  are  first  called  upon  to  solve  the  ques- 
tion :  How  did  this  art  arise?    We  are  bound  to  take  a  positive 

*"  If  any  one  In  our  times  would  attempt  to  trace  the  origin  of  Roman  shorthand, 
"  and  set  forth  its  growth,  he  would  not  indeed,  seem  to  perform  a  useless  labor  nor  to 
"  engage  in  an  undertaking  unworthy  of  the  attention  of  learned  men." 


16 

stand  against  the  assertion,  presented  by  philologists  and  historians, 
"  that  the  Roman  quick-writing  had  formed  itself  through  necessity 
"and  practice  and  had  gradually  developed,  so  that  we  cannot 
"  properly  speak  of  tM  inventor  of  it.''  The  idea  of  producing  a 
writing  which  by  the  re-formation  of  the  usual  letters  (for  the  sake 
of  greater  facility,  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  a  better  connection)  and 
by  employing  certain  abbreviations  according  to  certain  principles 
to  enable  the  initated  to  fix  the  quick  speech,  has  necessarily  arisen 
in  a  certain  person  who  may  have  busied  himself  diligentlj'  with  the 
question  :  In  what  easier  and  more  perfect  manner  than  bj'  way  of 
the  siglae  can  the  verbiage  of  a  speech  be  fixed?  and  then  recognizing 
the  practicability  of  this  idea  endeavored  to  give  it  a  convenient 
and  definite  shape.  A  system  like  that  of  the  Tironian  Xotes  will 
never  arise  of  itself.  Even  in  modern  times  we  only  know  of  sys- 
tems, which,  emanating  from  different  and  distinct  inventors,  were 
usually  named  after  them  ; — we  know  of  none,  the  signs  and  princi- 
ples of  which  had  formed  themselves  through  "  necessitj'  and  prac- 
tice and  gradually  become  a  system. "  It  is  similar  with  the  formation 
of  alphabets  ;  it  must  be  assumed  that  each  must  have  had  a  distinct 
inventor.  Whether  a  certain  and  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  inventor 
and  of  the  circumstances  of  his  life  has  come  down  to  us  through 
so  many  centuries  is  another  question. 

By  whom,  and  when,  the  Roman  tachygraphy  was  invented  is 
difficult  to  determine,  and  possibly  cannot  be  satisfactorily  decided. 
But  in  order  to  arrive  at  some  fair  conclusion,  we  must  consider  the 
statements  of  the  ancients  which  allude  to  the  origin  of  a  distinct 
Roman  quick-writing. 

We  have  intimated  at  the  close  of  the  last  section  that  we  cannot 
concur  in  the  opinion  based  upon  the  authoritj-  of  Isidor  :  "  Com- 
mon abbreviations,  1100,  were  invented  first  by  Ennius,"  or  that  En- 
nius  had  introduced  tachygraphy  in  Rome.  To  refute  these  state- 
ments we  hardl}^  need  subject  the  credibility  of  this  authority 
to  a  closer  investigation.  Isidor  lived  in  a  dark  age.  When 
he  composed  the  encyclopedia,  edited  by  him  under  the  name 
of  the  Primitive  History,  he  issued  it  without  a  clear  under- 
standing of  the  subject — he  borrowed  his  statements,  mostly,  from 
the  grammarians  who  flourished  from  the  second  to  the  fourth  cen- 
tury and  left  historical  facts  almost  entirely  out  of  consideration. 
While  these  facts  alone  are  apt  to  weaken  his  testimony, 
we,  on  our  part,  do  not  see  the  slightest  ground  for  the 
assumption  that  he  thought  of  tachygraphy  when  he  spoke 
of  the  common  abbreviations  (vulgnres  notae).  The  "  common 
abbreviations"  are  no  more  nor  less  than  the  m'fflae  which 
had  come  early  into  use  among  the  Romans  and  were  called 
trulgares,  because  they  were  employed  by  everybodj'.  Siglae,  there- 
fore, not  tachygraphic  signs,  were  invented  by  Ennius.     The  ques- 


17 

lion  whether  by  this  Ennius,  is  meant  the  poet  Quintus  Ennius  of 
Rudia  (239-169  B.  C),  or  the  grammarian  Ennius,  of  whom  Sueton 
makes  mention  (about  120  B.  C),  or  even  a  third  person  of 
this  name,  we  are  not  prepared  to  answer.  One  of  the  most 
important  historical  records  which  gives  us  with  some  degree 
of  certainty  the  time  in  whicli  the  art  of  shorthand  writing 
came  into  use  at  Rome,  and  which,  compared  with  other  testimonies 
or  proofs,  points  to  the  inventor  of  this  art,  is  the  passage  in  Plutarch 
repeatedly  quoted  by  us  (Cato,  Chap.  23).  For  a  better  understand- 
ing of  the  words  of  Plutarch  we  beg  leave  to  present  the  following  : 
When  Catiline  had  become  convinced  through  the  popular  agita- 
tion which  the  first  speech  of  Cicero  against  him  in  the  senate  had 
created  (delivered  on  the  8th  of  November,  63  B.  C.)  which  showed 
that  his  pernicious  plans  were  well  known,  fearing  for  his  own 
personal  safety  in  Rome  under  Cicero's  watchful  eyes,  he  went 
with  his  army  to  Etruria,  leaving  the  management  of  his  affairs  in 
Rome  to  C.  Cethegus  and  P.  Lentulus.  The  conspirators  left  behind 
in  the  city,  as  well  as  other  partisans  of  Catiline,  mostly  men  of 
good  families,  but  without  any  moral  character,  who  sought  their 
fortune  in  a  total  revolution  of  affairs,  despairing  at  last  of  the  possi- 
bility of  adding  to  their  number  in  Rome,  turned  their  attention 
to  obtaining  foreign  aid.  For  this  purpose  they  called  on  the  ambas- 
sadors of  the  AUobrogi  (a  Gallic  people)  who  had  come  to  complain 
of  the  conduct  of  Roman  oflBcials  in  their  country,  and  who  were 
on  the  eve  of  leaving  the  city  because  their  complaints  had  received 
no  favorable  hearing.  At  first  the  AUobrogi  readily  listened  to  the 
conspirators'  proposals,  but  soon  thereafter,  reflecting  on  the  conse- 
quences and  the  risks  of  such  enterprises,  they  communicated  every- 
thing to  Fabius  Sanga,  their  advocate  in  the  city,  who,  in  turn,  lost 
no  time  in  informing  Cicero  thereof.  Cicero  then  employed  the  AUo- 
brogi to  make  accurate  observations  of  the  conspirators'  doings.  In 
this  way  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  written  proofs  which  he  placed 
unopened  before  the  senate  convoked  in  the  Temple  of  Concord. 
From  these  documents,  as  well  as  from  the  confessions  of  the  con- 
spirators who  were  seized  in  Rome,  the  guilt  of  the  latter  became 
clearly  apparent,  and  the  known  participants  in  the  conspiracy  were, 
by  resolution  of  the  senate,  given  into  the  custody  of  various  sena- 
tors. But  when  the  prisoners,  through  their  aiders  and  abettors, 
sought  to  incite  the  populace,  and  mustered  their  slaves  and  freed- 
men  in  order  to  free  themselves,  forcibly,  from  custody,  Cicero, 
three  days  after  the  arrest  of  those  partisans  of  Catiline,  again  con- 
voked the  senate  to  decide  upon  the  question :  what  shaU  be  done 
with  the  prisoners  who  were  confessedly  guilty  of  high  treason,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  their  adherents  assumed  a  menacing  attitude? 
D.  Junius  Silanus,  consul  elect,  first  took  the  floor  and  moved  that 
the  prisoners,  as  well  as  some  who  had  escaped  arrest  by  taking 
flight,  should  be  sentenced  to  death.  All  expressed  themselves  in 
3 


•^ 


18 

the  same  way  except  Julius  Caesar,  then  praetor.  He  voted  for 
confiscation  of  the  property  and  life-long  imprisonment  of  the  con- 
spirators. This  milder  sentence  seemed  to  gain  ground,  when  Cato 
of  Utica,  taking  up,  again,  the  recommendation  of  Silanus,  pro- 
cured a  victory  for  the  harsher  sentence  by  the  power  of  his  oratory. 

It  is  this  speech  of  which  Plutarch  says  :  "  It  had  been  preserved 
by  the  well-known  instrumentality  of  Cicero."  Sallust  only  gives 
the  speeches  of  Caesar  and  Cato — quite  naturally  so — for  they  were 
the  only  important  ones. 

Those  who  incline  to  the  opinion  that  these  speeches  handed  down 
by  Sallust  were  authentic,  or  based  upon  stenographic  reports,  are 
mistaken.  The  ancient  historians  never  preserved  stenogi-aphic 
speeches.  Sallust,  too,  evidently  edited  in  his  mind  these  two 
speeches,  as  all  other  speeches  that  appear  in  his  works,  for  they  all 
bear  the  stamp  of  his  own  diction.  But  apart  therefrom  we  may 
well  assume  that  both  Caesar  and  Cato,  in  proceedings  of  such  grave 
importance,  had  spoken  longer  than  ten  minutes — the  time  which  the 
speeches  quoted  by  Sallust  take  up  in  reciting. 

After  putting  into  the  proper  light  the  occasion  and  subject  of 
that  speech  of  Cato,  our  next  task  is  to  consider  the  words  of 
Plutarch  himself,  and  to  weigh  what  inferences  for  our  purpose  may 
be  gleaned  from  them. 

"  This  speech  of  Cato,"  we  read,  "  has  been  preserved  in  this  man- 
"  ner :  Cicero  had  taught  the  most  skilful  writers,  beforehaiid,  signs, 
' '  which  in  small  and  short  characters  comprehended  the  signification 
"  of  many  letters.  These  writers  he  placed  in  different  parts  of  the 
"curia,  for  as  yet  they  had  developed  neither  quick-writers,  nor  did 
"  they  have  any,  but  were  just  entering  upon  that  path." 

Primarily, — it  seems  evident  that  in  the  words  :  "  signs  which  in 
"small  and  short  characters  comprehended  the  signification  of  many 
"  letters,"  lies  a  clear  and  definite  allusion  to  the  fact  that  we  have 
no  longer  to  do  with  mere  siglae,  for  these  were  not  necessarily  small 
and  short  characters.  It  is  no  less  significant  that  we  read  :  ru-ui 
not  ypd/ifiara  or  (rrotysla.  Should  we  not  rather  infer  from  this 
that  Plutarch  was  not  thinking  of  common  letters,  but  of  peculiar 
signs?  The  remarks  of  Plutarch  would  have  been  idle  if  he  only 
meant  to  say  that  certain  words,  for  the  sake  of  brevity,  were  ex- 
pressed with  the  initial  letters,  for  that  was  commonly  known 
to  every  one  at  the  time.  He  must  have  had  something  rather 
unknown  in  mind.  Even  if  the  Greeks  did  not  comprehend  the 
nature  of  the  Roman  tachygraphy,  they  would  certainly  have  en- 
deavored to  faithfully  reproduce  the  exterior  form  as  it  appeared 
to  them. 

In  regard  to  the  mode  of  obtaining  stenographic  reports  of  pro- 
ceedings in  those  days,  Plutarch  observes  that  "  Cicero  posted  sten- 


19 

ographers  in  various  places  in  the  curia."  According  to  this  ah 
alternation  in  the  manner,  as  Isidor  describes  it,  cannot  be  in  question. 
The  employment  of  several  quick-writers  was  surely  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  put  together  something  complete  from  the  several 
imperfect  reports  of  the  entire  proceedings  by  collecting  all  the  no- 
tations ;  in  other  words,  it  was  done  with  a  view  to  meet  the,  as 
yet,  imperfect  development  of  that  new  art. 

Therefore,  about  the  year  63  B.  C.  tachygraphy  was  known  and 
practiced  at  Rome. 

It  may  be  mentioned  in  this  connection  that  Sarpe  assigns  even 
an  earlier  date  for  the  employment  of  stenographers.  He  says  ' '  the 
"  second  accusation  against  Verres  shows  plainly  that  in  the  year 
"  70  B.  C.  the  statements  of  witnesses  were  noted  down  by  quick- 
' '  writers,  for  if  such  had  not  been  employed  during  the  first  pro- 
"  ceedings,  Cicero  could  not  possibly  have  had  the  statements  made  by 
"  witnesses  in  the  first  proceedings,  read  aloud  during  the  second, 
' '  viz. ,  in  the  first  book  (49,  138)  the  evidence  of  C  Fannius,  in  the 
' '  second,  the  statements  of  M.  Cullus,  Clorus  and  Dio,  or  in  the  fourth 
' '  those  of  Archagathus  and  LentuUus.  The  accusations  against 
"  Verres,  as  is  well  known,  were  brought  forward  in  the  year  684  of 
"the  city,  or  70  before  Christ.  The  supposition  that  those  who 
' '  wrote  down  the  words  in  the  courts  made  use  of  siglae  merely  is, 
"  as  every  one  sees,  opposed  by  the  fact  that  as  there  were  siglae  but 
"  for  very  few  words  and  sentences,  these  would  not  have  answered 
"  the  required  purpose.  Valerius  Probus,  too,  to  whom  a  book  on 
"  the  notes  (that  is,  siglae)  is  ascribed,  knows  nothing  of  the  use  of 
"  the  siglae  for  reporting  court  proceedings."  Apart  from  the  fact 
that  Sarpe  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  the  words  of  Valerius  Probus, 
to  which  he  alludes,  reading  thus  :  "  Maxime  in  senatu  qui  scnbendo 
aderant "  (those  who  were  present  in  the  senate  for  the  purpose  of 
writing)  do  not  necessarily  exclude  the  employment  of  the  siglae  ; 
again,  that  in  the  passage  of  Isidor,  largely  commented  on  by  Sarpe 
himself,  it  is  expressly  stated  :  ' '  The  employment  of  these  abbrevia- 
"  lions  (the  siglae)  took  place  in  such  a  manner  that  all  which  was 
"  spoken  in  the  assemblage  or  before  the  tribunal,  etc,"  the  opinion 
of  Sarpe  seems  to  be  completely  unfounded,  because,  otherwise, 
stenography,  at  that  time,  must  have  been  very  extensively  em- 
ployed over  the  whole  Roman  Empire  if  it  was  already  used  in  the 
Sicilian  tribunals  for  the  purpose  of  recording,  although  it  had  not 
then  even  been  employed  in  the  Roman  senate. 

It  is  indisputable  that  these  momentous  proceedings  of  the  senate 
alluded  to,  affecting  the  whole  empire,  gave  the  impulse  to  the  in- 
vention and  propagation  of  shorthand  writing.  In  Greece,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  small  extent  of  the  States,  the  words  of  the  orator 
could  reach  the  ears  of  all  the  citizens  of  the  respective  States  and  a 
stenographic  report,  for  this  very  reason,  was  scarcely  a  necessity. 


20 

In  Borne,  on  the  contrary,  it  was  essential  to  produce  a  verbatim 
report  in  order  to  cause  the  debates,  proceedings,  and  weighty  reso- 
lutions to  re-echo  through  the  vast  empire.  So  much  the  more  they 
must  have  felt  themselves  impelled  thereto,  as  the  eyes  of  all  who 
sojourned  in  the  provinces  were  directed  to  the  metropolis  and 
every  one  wished  to  be  informed  as  accurately  as  possible  on  the  im- 
portant proceedings  that  took  place  there. 

If  we  now  turn  to  the  question  :  "  Who  may  be  considered  the  in- 
ventor of  Roman  tachygraphy,  we  must,  at  the  outset,  refute  the 
opinion  to  which  Plutarch's  words :  "  Cicero  had  taught  those 
skilled  writers  tachygraphy,"  might  give  rise,  and  which  seem 
already  to  have  given  rise  to  the  opinion  that  this  celebrated  orator 
and  statesman  of  Rome  had  invented  Roman  shorthand  writing. 
Contrary  hereto  we  must  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  in  the  days  of 
antiquity  the  merits  of  the  freedmen  were  but  too  frequently 
ascribed  to  their  patrons  (in  some  respects  in  analogy  with  the  ac- 
cepted maxim  that  whatever  a  slave  acquired,  he  acquired  not  for 
himself,  but  for  his  master),  and  that  accordingly  Plutarch  may 
easily  have  ascribed  to  Cicero  what  (as  we  shall  show  further  on)  be- 
longed to  Tiro.  We  ought,  furthermore,  to  consider  that  the  slaves 
and  freedmen  at  Rome  rendered  the  greatest  service  to  the  literary 
world  as  copyists,  readers,  stenographers,  and  in  many  other  ways. 
The  book  trade,  for  instance,  was  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of 
freedmen.  We  must  be  mindful  of  the  words  of  Seneca  ;  "  that  all 
these  things,  the  stenographic  signs,  were  only  inventions  of  the 
lowest  slaves,"  which  show  that  stenography  was  no  fashionable 
branch,  to  the  study  of  which  the  aristocratic  Romans  condescended. 
We  must  further  consider  that  Cicero,  had  he  been  the  inventor  or 
merely  the  perfecter  of  shorthand  writing,  would  not  have  remained 
silent  about  it,  if  we  are  to  judge  from  his  whole  character  and 
nature  ;  and  that  even  in  the  writings  of  his  biographers  and  com- 
mentators no  allusion  whatever  to  such  a  meritorious  achievement 
can  be  found. 

In  regard  to  the  words  of  Cicero  :  "  what  I  wrote  to  you  about  the 
"  ten  ambassadors,  I  believe  you  have  not  properly  understood  be- 
"  cause  I  wrote  to  you  by  means  of  signs," — on  which  words  the  op- 
position to  the  opinion  given  in  the  above  paragraph  is  based, 
the  expression,  did  (TTjfieiwv  furnishes  no  clue  to  what  these  signs 
were  ;  whether  they  were  brief  or  secret  signs.  Most  probably  the 
latter  signs  were  meant,  as  Cicero  would  surely  not  have  written 
part  of  his  letter  in  a  new  kind  of  writing  from  the  mere  vanity  of 
employing  new  signs ;  far  more  likely,  he  did  it  in  order  to 
communicate  to  his  friends,  by  means  of  secret  signs,  important  in- 
telligence which  was  intended  solely  for  Atticus  and  not  for  others 
into  whose  hands  the  letter  might  accidentally  fall.-  Whilst  Roman 
citizens  generally  did  not  busy  themselves  with  tachygraphy,  we 


21 

know  that  they  not  infrequently  made  use  of  the  latebra  seribendt. 
Aulus  Gellius  tells  us  in  his  Attic  Nights,  amongst  other  things, 
that  CfBsar,  in  his  correspondence  with  C.  Oppius  and  Balbus  Corne- 
lius, designated  each  letter  by  another  sound  than  the  one  generally' 
iised  ;  and  Sueton  reports  that  the  secret  writing  of  Augustus  con- 
sisted in  making  the  second  letter  of  the  alphabet  the  first,  the  third 
the  second,  etc.,  and  that  he  designated  the  last  letter  by  aa. 
Finally,  a  passage  in  Cassius  Dio  (xl. ,  9)  may  be  mentioned  here,  in 
which  we  read  of  a  report  forwarded  by  a  legate  of  Cicero  relat- 
ing to  a  communication  from  Caesar  saying:  "For  fear  that  his 
"  instructions  should  fall  into  hands  for  whom  they  were  not  in- 
'*  tended,  he  made  use  of  a  perverted  mode  of  writing  which  could 
"  not  be  understood  by  any  one  but  the  one  for  whom  it  was  in- 
"  tended." 

To  Cicero,  therefore,  is  not  due  the  merit  of  the  invention  or  even 
of  the  development  of  Roman  shorthand  writing.  But  that  he 
furthered  this  art  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  on  account  of  the  ad- 
vantages it  offered  to  himself,  we  may  well  believe. 

On  the  other  hand  his  f reedman.  Tiro,  named  after  him  54  B.  C. , 
seems  justly  to  be  entitled  to  the  name  of  inventor  of  Roman  tachy- 
graphy.  Eusebius  (325  A.  D.)  or  Hieronymous  (373  A.  D.)  says  : 
"  Marcus  Tullius  Tiro,  the  f reedman  of  Cicero,  who  first  invented 
the  stenographic  signs,  etc."  A  confirmation  of  this  statement  is 
found  in  the  words  of  Isidor :  "  In  Rome,  Tullius,  the  f reedman 
"  of  Cicero,  first  elucidated  stenographic  signs,  but  only  for 
"the  prepositions."  That  Tiro,  above  all  others,  possessed 
great  skill  in  quick-writing  is  shown  in  the  letters  of  his 
master  to  Atticus.  We  read  there:  "But  I  have  by  no  means 
"dictated  to  Tiro,  who  is  accustomed  to  follow  entire  periods,  but 
"  I  have  dictated  by  syllables  to  Spintharus."  If  we  remember  the 
passage  in  Plutarch,  discussed  at  length  above,  in  which  he  evidently 
ascribes  to  the  master  what  is  due  to  the  servant,  and  bear  in  mind 
the  words  of  Seneca,  who  calls  stenography  an  invention  of  the 
slaves  ;  and  if  we  finally  put  together  all  the  facts  presented,  we  cer- 
tainly find  the  strongest  probability  that  the  much  disputed  state- 
ment that  Tiro,  the  talented  freedman  of  the  great  Roman  statesman 
and  orator,  invented  and  developed  the  stenographic  art,  is  the  cor- 
rect one,  an  opinion  which  is  also  supported  by  Sickel's  argument 
against  Kopp  (commentaries  on  the  documents  of  the  first  Car- 
lovingians  p.  327). 

From  the  words  of  Isidor  just  alluded  to,  it  further  appears  (that 
is,  supposing  we  read  commentatas  and  not  commentus)  that  Tiro  had 
written  a  sort  of  compendium  of  tachygraphy.  It  is  true  we  find 
neither  in  Gellius  nor  in  Asconius,  who  speak  of  the  literary  activity 
of  that  freedman,  a  positive  and  direct  allusion  to  such  a  work.  It, 
however,  may  be  assumed  that  such  a  work  had  formed  part  of  the 


22 

"  Pandects  "  of  Tiro  mentioned  by  Gellius.  This  statement  of  Isidor 
finds  again  some  confinnation  in  the  words  of  the  Abbot  Trithemius : 
"  That  Marcus  TuUius  Cicero,  the  eloquent  Roman,  had  composed  a 
rather  extensive  work  on  tachygraphy,"  when  we  remember  that, 
as  a  rule,  (as  we  have  shown  before),  what  was  due  to  the  servant 
was  ascribed  to  the  master.  We  shall  later  have  an  opportunity  to 
refer  again  to  this  collection  of  notes. 

Noteworthy  is  an  utterance  of  Fosse,  regarding  the  services  of 
stenographers  at  that  time.  He  saj's  :  "  II  est  fort  douteux  que  le» 
simHograpJies  futsent  parvenus  a  une  tres-grande  acceli ration,  lis 
suivaient  la  parole  des  orateurs,  voilA  nn  fait  incontestable  ;  mats  s'  il 
estvrai,  comme  ledit  Quinctilian  dans  son  Traiti  du  geste,  que  Ciciron 
mettaitjusqu'd  trois  lieures  <t  prononcer  ses  discours,  nous  devons  en  eon- 
clure,  que  Vart  n^Stait  pas  alors  aussi  difficile  que  de  notre  temps.  Les 
orateurs  anciens  parlaient  sur  des  places  publiques,  en  presence  de  toute 
une  citi :  pour  se  faire  entendre  il  leurfallailenfler  lavoix,  et  remimon 
des  mots  en  Stait  d'autant  rdkntie.  La  rapidity  du  discours  est  en 
raison  inverse d£  I'espQce  dans  lequel  il  est  prononce.'^* 

If  we  now  ask  :  what  men  besides  Tiro  are  named  who  made 
themselves  conspicuous  as  Roman  shorthand  writers,  we  first  meet 
the  following  often  quoted  passages  in  Isidor  :  The  next  was  Vipsa- 
nius  Philargyrus,  a  freedman  of  M.  Vipsanius  Agrippa,  (died  13 
B.  C).  Next  Isidor  mentions  Aquila,  a  freedman  of  C.  Cilnius 
Maecenas,  (died  8  B.  C).  Here,  also,  the  fact  is  repeated  that  to 
Maecenas  is  ascribed  what  his  freedman  had  done.  Dio  Cassius 
(155-229  A.  D.)  gives  in  his  history,  after  relating  the  death  of 
Maecenas,  a  description  of  the  manifold  merits  of  this  man.  He 
states  what  wholesome  influence  he  had  exerted  upon  Augustus  ; 
that  he  had  been  the  first  to  introduce  warm  baths  at  Rome,  and  then 
adds,  that  he  "likewise  had  first  invented  shorthand  writing  signs 
"  and  had  the  same  taught  to  many  others  by  his  freedman,  Aquilla." 
It  is  bj'  no  means  to  be  supposed  that  Maecenas  himself  had  a  hand 
in  the  development  of  Roman  shorthand  writing,  as  might  be  in- 
ferred from  Dio's  words. 

Even  Lipsius  doubts  this.  Still  less,  according  to  what  we  have 
before  shown,  is  the  opinion  well-founded  that  this  statesman  laid 
the  foundation  of  Roman  tachygraphj-.  This  needs  no  further  refu- 
tation. Perhaps  Dio  merely  meant  to  say  that  Maecenas,  that  is, 
his  freedman,  Aquilla,  invented  some  signs  and  made  use  of  them. 
Although  it  may  be  regarded  as  tolerably  certain  that  Maecenas,  no 

*"  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  semiographers  had  attained  very  great  swiftness. 
"  Tliat  they  followed  the  words  of  the  orators — is  an  incontestabla  fact,  but,  if  it  is  true,  as 
"Quintilian  says  in  his  treatise  on  Gesture  that  Cicero  consumed  as  much  as  three 
"  hours  in  delivering  his  speeches,  we  must  conclude  therefrom  that  the  stenographic 
"  art  was  not  as  difficult  to  master  in  those  days  as  in  our  times.  The  ancient  orators 
"  spoke  in  public  places  in  the  presence  of  a  whole  city  ;  in  order  to  make  themselves 
'•  heard,  they  were  obliged  to  inflate  their  voices  and  the  utterance  of  their  words  was, 
"consequently,  somewhat  slackened.  The  rapidity  of  speech  is  in  inverse  i-atio  to  the 
"  time  of  deliverance." 


23 

more  than  Cicero  and  Vipsanius  Agrippa,  had  learned  and  practiced, 
and  that  these  distinguished  Romans  had  rather  called  this  art  into 
their  service,  yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  that  minister  of  Au- 
gustus (Maecenas)  rendered  another  service  to  shorthand  which 
may  be  more  highly  estimated  than  that  of  augmenting  the 
number  of  stenographic  signs.  From  Dio's  communication 
we  may  infer  that  Maecenas,  appreciating  the  advantage  and  signifi- 
cance of  tachygraphy,  exert«d  his  influence  to  have  this  art  taught, 
and  perhaps  made  its  teaching  compulsory  by  the  state,  with  a 
view  of  making  it  serviceable  for  public  purposes.  This  inference 
would  gain  more  credibility  if  the  statement  made  by  Gabelsberger 
(Anleitung  z.  d.  Redez-Kunst-Mtiuchen,  1834,  S.  4t>.)  was  based  on 
fact,  the  authority  for  which  we  have  vainly  sought,  namely  :  "  That 
"  during  the  life  of  Augustus  there  were  about  300  special  schools 
"  in  the  Roman  Empire  in  which  nothing  but  stenography  was 
"  taught." 

With  regard  to  "  Seneca,"  mentioned  by  Isidor  as  a  promoter  and 
developer  of  Roman  shorthand  writing,  opinions  are  greatly  divided 
as  to  whether  it  means,  M.  Annaus  Seneca,  the  orator  (56  B.  C.  34 
A.  D.),  or  his  son  Lucius  Annaus  Seneca,  the  philosopher  (3-65  A. 
D.).  Lipsius  and  Kopp  decide  for  the  former.  Sarpe,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  of  the  opposite  opinion.  He  takes  the  ground  that :  "  even  if 
Lucius  expressed  himself  contemptuously  with  regard  to  tachy 
graphy,  he  only  did  so,  when  in  opposition  to  Posidonius  (of 
Agamea,  called  the  Rhodian,  a  philosopher  and  hi.storian,  who  lived 
from  135  to  51  B.  C,  and  whose  writings  have  only  come  down  to  us 
in  fragments,  so  that  we  do  not  know  against  which  passage  and 
which  of  his  works  the  attack  of  Seneca  was  directed)  he  denied 
that  philosophy  was  the  mother  of  the  arts  of  every  day  life,  and 
that  we  were  indebted  to  the  ingenuity  of  man  to  devise  the  arts 
and  not  to  his  wisdom.  Wisdom  is  seated  deeper  ;  it  does  not  make 
the  hand  skilled  in  arts  ;  it  is  the  ruler  of  thought.  But  if  we  would 
infer  from  this  that  Seneca  despised  in  life  what  he  denied  in  his  writ- 
ings, one  might  as  well  go  so  far  as  to  deny  him  eloquence,  learning, 
ambition  and  the  possession  of  unlimited  wealth.  But  as  Lucius 
himself  had  written  much,  and  in  part,  as  his  writings  show,  had 
frequently  dictated,  what  prevents  us  from  a.ssuming  that  shorthand 
writing  had  interested  him  sufficiently  to  induce  him  to  collect  and 
make  additions  to  the  stenographic  signs?  In  addition  to  this  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that  it  was  customary  with  the  Latin  authors  to  desig- 
nate well-known  men  only  by  one  name,  less  known  ones,  by  sev- 
eral. But  if,  in  spite  of  this,  we  should  incline  to  the  opinion  that 
Seneca  himself  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  collection  of  tachygraphic 
signs,  we  must  remember  that  in  Greek  and  Latin  it  is  frequently 
said  of  a  person  that  he  had  done  Um  or  that — which  had  been  done 
only  by  his  order  or  by  some  representative." 


24 

Here  again  we  see  entirely  different  opinions  opposed  to  each 
other.  No  wonder,  for  all  facts  relating  to  the  tachygraphy  of  the 
ancients  are  more  or  less  shrouded  in  obscurity  and  it  would  be  dif- 
ficult, if  not  impossible,  to  present  the  truth  in  every  instance.  If 
we  are  called  upon  to  state  our  opinion  we  will  express  the  convic- 
tion that  neither  the  orator  nor  the  philosopher  took  the  trouble  to 
learn  stenography,  far  less  to  enrich  it  with  new  inventions.  Such 
an  occupation  of  either,  is,  in  our  opinion,  diametrically  opposed  to 
the  known  direction  of  their  minds.  The  works  of  the  father 
as  the  works  of  the  son,  especially  the  latter,  are  characterized  by 
deterioration.  At  that  time,  we  find,  profound  knowledge  was  no 
longer  the  main  thing.  Troublesome  and  time-exhausting  spe- 
cial researches  entering  into  details  were  already  looked  down 
upon  with  a  certain  degree  of  superciliousness,  just  as  in 
our  time  able  and  detailed  studies  are  disposed  of  by  cer- 
tain writers  simply  designating  them  as  pedantic.  Not  con- 
sidering that  great  and  general  results  are  the  fruits  only  of  un- 
ceasing and  earnest  investigation,  they  expected  to  reap  the  harvest 
without  taking  the  trouble  to  bestow  their  undivided  attention  to 
the  tree  which  was  to  bear  the  fruit.  We  cannot  wonder  that  the 
fruit  gathered  was  poor.  The  writings  of  the  courtier,  and  so- 
called  philosopher,  Seneca,  are  of  a  flimsy,  fastidious  character.  The 
ideas  express  that  tone  of  aristocracy  which,  by  the  way,  the  sen 
tence :  "stenography  was  an  invention  of  the  meanest  race  of 
slaves "  strikingly  illustrates.  How  can  we  then  suppose  that  such 
authors  would  have  busied  themselves  with  an  occupation  "so  dry 
and  lusterless "  as  the  collection  of  tachygraphic  signs  and  their 
augmentation  ?  If  the  rhetorician,  or  his  son,  had  really  con- 
descended to  do  such  work,  surely  neither  of  them  would  have 
put  his  "  light  under  a  bushel  ;"  at  least  not  the  latter,  whose  well- 
known  vanity  would  surelj^  not  have  allowed  such  an  achievement 
to  sink  into  oblivion.  Nowhere  in  his  numerous  letters  and  disserta- 
tions do  we  find  the  least  allusion  to  the  matter.  Again,  the  ground 
which  Sarpe  assumes  for  his  supposition  that  widely-known  men 
were  briefly  designated  by  one  name  only,  is  by  no  means  reliable. 
Frequently  unimportant  men  were  designated  only  by  one  name,  as 
for  instance,  Ennius,  the  grammarian,  while  there  existed  a  famous 
poet  of  that  name,  hence  a  distinction  of  the  latter  from  the  former 
would  have  appeared  to  be  a  necessity.  On  the  other  hand,  cele- 
brated men  were  not  infrequently  designated  by  several  names,  as 
Marcus  Tullius  Cicero. 

There  was,  besides,  another  Seneca  who  lived,  at  the  latest,  about 
the  time  of  Domitian  in  the  first  century  after  Christ,  and  who 
edited  the  poems  of  Lucan  ;  this  Seneca  might  be  the  one  alluded  to. 
Nay,  if  we  consider  that  the  name  of  Seneca  was  by  no  means  an 
uncommon  one,  even  a  third  supposition  would  not  appear  out  of 


25 

place.  This  supposition  is,  that  shortly  aft«r  Tiro,  Philargyrus  and 
Aquila  in  their  noble  strife  to  bring  Roman  shorthand  writing  to 
blooming  perfection  in  the  circles  accessible  to  them  (the  circle  of 
the  copyists  and  grammarians)  had  laid  a  firm  foundation,  a  freed- 
man  by  the  name  of  Seneca  gathered  much  of  the  scattered  materials 
and  augmented  them  by  his  own  additional  devices. 

"Everywhere,"  saj's  Schmitz,  in  his  Tironiana,  "the  name  of 
Seneca!"  Which  Seneca  is  meant?  While  the  claims  of  Tiro  to  an 
essential  share  in  the  invention  and'development  of  Roman  stenog- 
raphy are  not  disputed  by  any  one,  it  is  impossible,  from  the 
nature  of  our  traditions,  to  give  a  definite  answer  to  the  query  about 
who  was  the  particular  Seneca  alluded  to  by  Schmitz.  I  forego, 
therefore,  a  discussion  of  the  various  hypotheses  which  declare  in 
favor  of  the  rhetorician  or  the  philosopher,  or  against  father  and  son, 
and  in  favor  of  a  third  person  of  that  name.  Only  the  following  two 
remarks  I  would  offer  concerning  the  activity  of  that  mysterious 
l)ersonage.  First,  Krause  errs  when  he  says  that  Seneca's  "work 
contained  about  15,000  stenographic  signs,  as  we  glean  from  a  work 
of  Isidor,"  for  in  Gruter  we  find,  including  the  numerous  Christian 
notes,  altogether  only  about  13,000 — compare  Kopp  1,  paragraph 
71.  page  57.  Second,  Sarpe  already  says  in  his  Prolegg.  ad  Tachygr. 
Rome,  page  26  (compare  Zeibig  page  30)  with  full  justice,  although 
not  with  the  desirable  emphasis,  that  the  frequently  quoted  words  in 
the  90th  letter  of  the  philosopher  Seneca  (paragraph  25),  "quid  ver- 
borum  noias  .  .  .  vilvmmorum  mancijnorum  ista  commenta  sunt," 
do  not  by  any  means  compel  us  to  claim  for  their  author  a  share  in 
the  origination  of  the  collection  of  notes. 

It  is  necessary  now  to  enter  briefly,  but  more  accurately  than  hitherto 
upon  the  train  of  thoughts.  After  Seneca  had,  on  the  one  hand, 
declared  himself,  in  consonance  with  Posidonius'  philosophy,  that 
philosophy  was  the  author  of  a  happy  life  and  the  nder  of  the  golden 
age,  he,  on  the  other  hand,  opposed  the  opinion  of  that  philosopher 
(Posidoniu.s),  that  philosophy  was  the  source  of  invention  of  the  arts 
of  every  daj'  life,  and  asserts  that  philosophy  had  no  more  to  do  with 
the  art  of  building  houses  and  cities  than  in  laying  out  our  artificial 
fish  ponds  ;  all  the.se  things,  he  maintained,  emanated  from  desire  of 
luxury  as  did  "  feiTamenta  fabrilia,"  and  the  working  of  metal  gen- 
erally .  .  .  (§19)  "  a  natura  luxTiria  descivit,  quae  .  .  .  novis- 
sime  animum  corpori  addixit  [the  extravagance,  which  very  recently 
sacrifled  the  soul  to  the  bod}', — the  substance  to  the  form — was  a  de- 
parture from  nature."]  The  assertion  of  Posidonius  (§20),  "omnia 
"  haec  sapiens  quidem  in venit :  sed  minora  quam  ut  ipse  tractaret, 
"  sordidioribus  ministris  dedit "  was  also  wrong:  "  immo  non  aliis 
"  excogitata  ista  stmt  quam  quibus  hodieque  curantur  :  quaedam 
' '  nostra  demum  prodisse  memoria  scimus,  ut  speculariorum  usum 
"  perlucente  testa  clarum  transmittentium  lumen,  ut  suspensuras 
4 


26 

"  balneorum  et  impressos  parietibus  tubos  per  quos  circumfunderetur 
"  calor,  qui  ima  simulac  summa  foveret  aequaliter  .  .  .  quid  loquar 
"  marmora,  quibus  templa,  quibus  domus  fulgeut  ?  quid  lapideas 
"  moles  in  rotundum  ac  leve  formata*!.  quibus  porticus  et  capacia 
"  populoruni  tecta  suscipimus  ?  quid  verboriim  nolo.*,  quibus  quamvis 
"  dtaUi  excipittii'  orntio  et  cdentntem  linguae  mamin  Keqvitur?  vHi^- 
'*  nmoinim  mancipiomm  ista  c&mmenta  mint.  Stipientia  altiun  sedet 
"  nee  m/inus  edocet :  nnimorum  mayutra  eat.  "* 

Who  does  not  see  that  iii  this  connection  not  merely  the  "  ver- 
borum  notae,"  but  also  other  previously  mentioned  artificialities 
("  quaedam  nostra  demum  .  .  .  tecta  suscipimus  ")  are  included  iu 
the  meaning  of  "commenta?"  If  this  he  the  case,  who  can  prove 
that  those  "commenta"  had  ull  emanated  from  real  slaves, 
who,  in  consequence  of  their  condition,  were  lightly  esteemed  ?  If 
such  proof  could  be  given,  we  should  nevertheless  be  compelled  to 
admit  that  Seneca  did  not  refer  to  the  generally  despised  caste  of 
slaves,  but  to  the  sentiment  which  instigated  these  inventions.  In 
other  words,  by  the  "  vilissima  mancipia"  we  must  not  understand, 
contemptible  slaves  in  the  civic  sense,  but  men,  who,  contrary  to  the 
higher  aspiration  and  the  nobler  activity  of  the  '*  sage  "  aiming  at 
the  elevation  of  mind,  liad  been  estranged  from  natural  simplicity 
and  Ijecjime  slaves  to  their  artificially  increased  wants,  by  showing 
a  servile  sentiment  in  the  creation  and  satisfaction  of  these  wants,  in 
opposition  to  the  higher  aims  of  wisdom. 

The  question  who  the  ''Seuecu"  wsis  that  Isidor  meutions  will 
hardly  ever  be  answered  satisfactorily.  We  know  next  to  nothing 
about  the  life  and  activity  of  the  ancient  Roman  grammarians,  apart 
from  Suetou's  little  work.  The  reason  for  this  seems  simply  to  be 
that  these  grammarians  were  considered  too  insignificant  to  have 
the  circumstances  of  their  lives  handed  down  to  posterity.  Whoever 
that  Seneca  may  have  been,  this  much  may  be  regarded  as  certain , 
that  his  collection  had  for  its  object  especially  to  promote  a  certain 
imifonnity  in  the  method  of  Avriting  and  abbreviation  among  all  the 
shorthand  writers  ;  for  even  at  that  time  occasional  innwrtant  dif- 
ferences and  peculiarities  of  prominent  shorthand  writers  appeared. 
In  the  following  statements  and  references  we  shall  not  separate  the 

*["  A  wise  man  indeed  invented  (or  discovered)  all  these  things:  but  matters  that 
"  were  too  trivial  for  him  to  discuss  he  left  to  hamblei-  instruments.  Nay,  indeed. 
"  these  ver}'  thinirs  were  thought  out  by  other  than  those  by  whom  they  are  cultivated 
■'at  the  present  time:  finally  we  know'that  certain  things  have  been  discovered  within 
"  our  own  memory,  as  for  example,  the  use  of  mirrors  for  the  transmi.'-sion  of  bright 
"  light:  the  arching  (or  vaulting)  of  baths  and  the  insertion  of  tubes  fn  walls  of  houses 
"  by  means  of  which  warmth  is  diflfused.  so  that  the  lowest  and  highest  j)arts  ai-e  equally 
"warmed.  Why  should  I  mention  the  marble  with  which  temples  and  houses  arc 
•'adorned?  Wliy  the  masses  of  stone  moulded  into  gracefully  rounded  columns  -with 
■•  which  we  support  poiticos  and  spacious  dwelling  houses  ?"  "  Again.  "  Why  the  sign^ 
"  of  words,  with  which  a  speech  though  rapid,  is  taken  down  and  the  hand  "follows  (or 
••  keeps  up  with)  the  speeil  of  the  tongue  ?  These  are  the  inventions  (devices  or  con- 
"  trivances)  of  men  in  a  servile  station  (or  men  of  servile  occupations).  Wisdom  holds 
"  a  loftier  place,  and  does  not  instruct  the  hands.  It  is  the  sovereign  (Hterally,  miMrtm) 
'•  of  the  intellect."! 


2-7 

Greek  tachygraphy  from  the  Roman,  to  avoid  too  many  details  in 
our  exposition. 

It  is  liardly  necessary  to  prove  that  Tiro  and  his  associates 
communicated  shorthand  writing  to  others.  We  have,  moreover, 
already  intimated  that  Maecenas  encouraged  instruction  in  this  art. 
It  is  also  generally  assumed  that  Caesar  Augustus  instructed  his 
grandsons  in  stenography,  an  assumption  based  upon  the  words  of 
Sueton  (Nepotes  et  literas  ct  notare  aliaque  rudimenta  \)er  se 
plerumque  docuit.)  taking  for  granted,  that  Lipsius  means  in  that 
passage  :  notare — ?to<^M  intelltgere — /  instead  of  the  earlier  expression 
reading  nature.  To  l>e  sure,  Torrentius,  in  opposition  to  this,  and 
as  we  believe  .iustly,  asserts  that  the  expression  "  literas  et  natare  " 
like  the  Greek  "aiyrr  vsrv  /zijr;  ypdiiimra  "  had  been  a  universally 
known  and  current  phrase  to  designate  the  harraonius  cultivation  of 
the  child  which  does  not  permit  the  body  to  be  neglected  for  the  in- 
tellect. The  object  of  Augustus  was  to  develop  his  grandsons,  who 
were  some  time  to  become  the  rulers  of  a  great  empire,  into  competent 
men  endowed  with  intellectual  and  bodily  vigor  of  the  highest  order. 

Still  more  definite  evidence  of  the  fact  that  shorthand  writing  was 
an  object  of  instruction,  especially  of  juveniles,  we  find  in  an  edict 
issued  by  the  Emi)eror  Diocletian;  A.  D.  301,  concerning  the  highest 
prizes  and  rewards  for  bodily  and  mental  development.  We  read 
there  that  the  teacher  of  .shorthand  writing  should  receive  75  Denares 
per  month  for  ever}'  pupil.  This  passage  gives  us,  at  the  same  time, 
an  intimation  of  the  salary  paid  to  the  then  teachers  of  tachygraphj'. 
From  ^lommsen's  investigations  regarding  the  value  of  the  Denare 
adopted  as  standard  measure  by  Diocletian,  we  conclude  that  the  75 
Denares  mentioned  there  amounted  to  about  $1.50.  If,  therefore, 
.such  a  teacher  had  a  large  number  of  pupils  we  may  figure  out  a 
profitable  sum  for  him  as  monthly  salaiy.  For  the  sake  of  compari- 
son, we  beg  leave  to  state  that  for  instruction  in  reading  and  writing 
for  each  individual  boy,  50  Denares  (about  $1)  was  paid  monthly, 
but  for  intruction  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages  200  Denares 
were  paid. 

From  communications  left  by  the  poet  Prudentius  (born  about 
348  A.  D.  at  Calahorra  in  Spain)  we  learn  that  after  having  been  ex- 
pelled from  his  Episcopal  see  at  Brescia,  the  holy  Cassianus,  in  the 
fourth  centurj^  established  a  school  at  Imolaand  instructed  juveniles, 
among  other  things,  in  shorthand  writing  ;  but  finally  he  was  killed 
by  his  exasperated  pupils  with  their  styluses. 

Further  corroboration  of  the  fact  that  the  art  of  shorthand  writing 
<-onstituted  a  part  of  juvenile  instruction,  we  find  in  the  words  of 
the  grammarian,  F.  Planciades  Fulgentius,  (480  A.  D.)  "  all  instruction 
"  is  of  a  lower  and  higher  nature,  as  the  instruction  of  the  youth  in 
"  writing,  is  divided  in  the  usual  one,  and  the  stenographic  one." 


28 

Finally,  Theodoretos,  bishop  of  Kyrrhas  in  Syria  (386-458),  re- 
lates in  liis  ecclesiastical  history  of  a  certain  Protogenes,  wlio  beina; 
banished  to  the  city  of  Antinous,  likewise  established  a  school 
and  instructed  his  pupils  in  shorthand  writing,  as  well  as  in  religion. 
Before  we  pass  to  an  exhibit  of  the  variety  of  shorthand  writing 
employed  in  the  days  prior  to  Cicero,  down  to  the  Church 
fathers,  permit  me  to  refer  to  the  fact  that  writing,  after  the  inven- 
tion of  shorthand  writing  proper,  had  become  threefold:  First,  a 
writing  of  all  the  letters  of  the  word,  perscribere,  which  in- 
cluded the  caligraphy ;  ypdipsiv  e;?  xdXXix; ;  second,  a  writing  in 
siglae,  and  third,  a  writing  in  tachygraphic  signs,  notu  or  j^er  com- 
pendia, ncribere.  The  stenographers  were  called  (Tr^fisioypdfs'.. 
ra^uypd^ot,  o^uypdtpoi,  ypa/x/iarsit;,  o-oypa<pztc^  u-roypaiinarslc^ 
bizodtyelc;,  vordptoi,  notarii,  actuarii,  exeeptores,  etc.,  but  if  we 
would  infer  that  these  words  always,  and  under  all  circumstances, 
meant  shorthand  writers  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  we  should  fre- 
quently err,  for  their  meaning  is  very  uncertain.  There  is  no  help 
for  it — we  are  compelled  in  each  case  to  investigate  the  context  of 
the  sentence  to  get  at  the  proper  designation  We  may,  however,  omit 
to  dw'ell  at  large  on  the  name  of  this  art,  and  its  disciples,  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  following  facts  throw  sufficient  light  on  this  question  t« 
make  it  clear. 

A  further  interj)olation  which  we  may  be  permitted  to  make,  is  the 
following:  Sueton  relates  of  the  Emperor  Titus  (79-81)  that  he  often 
in  pleasantry,  for  a  wager,  vied  with  a  writer  in  tachygraphy,  and  the 
bishop  of  Ptolemais,  Synesios  (378-430)  mentions  in  his  61st  letter  a 
shorthand  writer  by  the  name  of  Asterios  to  whom  he  had  promi.sed 
a  large  Egyptian  carpet.  The  accurate  description  which  Synesios 
gives  of  Asterios  was  caused  bj'  apprehension  that  the  present  might 
fall  into  the  hands  of  another  person  of  the  same  name  and  profes- 
sion, which  proves  that  neither  the  name  nor  the  vocation  of  the  per- 
son named  was  an  uncommon  one. 

It  we  ask  of  what  use  was  stenography  to  the  ancients,  we  find 
that  this  art  was  a  servant  of  public,  political,  judicial,  ecclesiastical 
and  scientific  oratory  ;  it  was  an  auxiliary  to  authoi*s  and  states- 
men in  their  studies,  in  fact,  it  was  employed  in  the  most  varied 
manner,  which  will  move  us  to  dwell  further  upon  passages  in  the 
writings  of  the  ancients  tending  to  prove  this. 

Sueton  says  in  his  life  of  Julius  Caesar  that  tliere  were  .some 
speeches  erroneously  ascribed  to  him,  for  instance  the  oration  for 
Q.  Metellus,  which  Augustus,  not  without  reason,  thought  had 
not  been  edited  by  himself,  but  by  .shorthand  "WTiters  who  were 
not  able  to  follow  the  words  of  the  orator  properly.  It  may  not  be 
irrelevant  to  quote  briefly  what  Sarpe  says  concerning  this  oration 
of  Caesar.      As   this  oration,  in  which  Julius  defends  Metellus  as 


•29 

well  as  himself  against  the  accusations  of  the  common  accusers, 
seems  to  have  been  delivered  in  the  year  after  the  discovery  of  the 
Catilinian  conspiracy,  that  is  in  the  year  62  B.  C. ,  at  which  time 
there  had  been  no  shorthand  writers  as  yet  employed  in  the  senate 
to  report  the  proceedings,  and  as  we  nowhere  read  that  proceedings 
had  been  instituted  against  Q.  Metellus  in  the  forum  on  the 
cliarge  of  having,  by  his  laws,  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  state, 
tlie  inference  is  justifiable  that  this  oration  was  delivered  in  the 
ComUkie  in  which  Julius  (according  to  the  report  of  Sueton — Julius 
16)  put  himself  forward  in  opposition  to  the  people's  tribune,  as 
defender  of  Metellus,  who  had  decreed  peace-disturbing  laws 
against  the  will  of  his  colleagues.  It  might  therefore  be  inferred 
that  (as  Sueton  reports)  after  Caesar  had  become  consul  he  ordered 
"to  take  down  and  to  publish,  not  only  the  proceedings  of  the 
"senate,  but  also  those  of  the  people."  Hence  the  employment  of 
shorthand  writing  in  the  Comitiae  in  the  year  54  B.  C. 

Q.  Asconius  Pedianus  remarks  in  his  commentary  on  the 
oration  of  Cicero  for  Milo  (delivered  52  B.  C),  that  this  oration  yet 
existed  in  stenographic  manuscript,  but  that  it  was  entirely  different 
from  the  one  which  he  explained  and  which  justly  might  be  con 
sidered  as  one  of  the  most  perfect  speeches  of  the  time.  When  Cicero 
commenced  tliis  oration  he  had  been  received  with  clamor  by  the 
adherents  of  Clodius,  who  were  not  even  to  be  repressed  through 
fear  of  the  guardians  ;  he  could  not,  therefore,  speak  with  the  firm- 
ness that  otherwise  characterized  him.  ]Milo  himself  observes  in  a 
witticism,  that  if  Cicero  had  delivered  liis  speech  in  the  form  in 
whicli  it  .subsequently  came  to  publicity,  he,  Milo,  would  surely  not 
have  been  compelled  to  breakfast  on  as  many  barbs  in  liis  exile  as 
was  the  case. 

M.  Fabius  Quintilianus  of  Calahorre  (35-95)  brought  forward  in 
his  "  Guide  to  the  Art  of  Oratory,"  a  number  of  prosecuting  speeches 
circulated  under  his  name,  which,  in  consequence  of  the  carelessness 
of  greedy  shorthand  writers  anxious  to  earn  money,  rendered  his 
words  faithfully  only  in  a  small  degree.  '  The  same  author  relates 
further  on  in  the  preface  to  his  above  named  work,  that  two  books 
on  rlietoric  circulated  under  his  name,  were  neither  edited  nor  even 
elaborated  by  him  for  publication.  Both  of  these  works  had  been 
written  down  and  published  by  hearers. 

In  the  satire  ascribed  to  the  young  Seneca,  '  The  turning  into  a 
pumpkin  of  the  Emperor  Claudius  "  it  is  said  that  Janus,  in  the 
council  of  the  gods,  had  eloquently  said  many  things  which  the 
shorthand  writer  was  not  able  to  follow,  and  that  therefore  no  re- 
port was  made  of  them,  rather  than  to  express  in  other  words  what 
he  had  spoken. 

Pliny,  the  younger,  (62-113)  relates  of  the  elder  of  this  name 
(23-79)  that  he  constantly  had  a  shorthand  writer  at  his  side,  even 


30 

when  traveling,  an<l  of  himself,  that  he  too  at  times  made  use  of  a 
shorthand  writer.  A  not  entirely  imimiwrtant  passage  relating  to 
the  age  of  the  invention  of  Greek  tachygraphy  might  Iw 
found  in  the  letters  of  Flavins  Philostratos  of  Lemnos  (195  A.  D.) 
He  went  from  Antioch  with  two  slaves,  a  shorthand  writer  and  a 
copyist.  A  further  written  evidence  regarding  a  stenographer  is 
found  in  Bockh,  in  Corp.  inscript.  graec.  Ill,  page  26,  no:  3902  d. 

In  the  celebrated  physician  Galeno's  (131-200)  work  "On  the 
books  that  emanated  from  him,"  we  read,  that,  one  day  when  he 
had  spoken  in  public  on  the  works  of  the  ancient  physicians  he  had 
taken  occa.sion,  in  that  part  of  the  work  of  Erasistratos  on  hemor- 
rhage in  which  bleeding  was  disproved,  to  bring  forward  many 
things  against  this  colleague  of  his.  Avith  the  intention  of  ve.xing  an- 
other physician  by  the  name  of  Partialis,  who  called  himself  a  di.s- 
ciple  of  Erasistratos.  After  his  oration  had  been  applauded  he  was 
requested  by  a  friend  to  dictate  what  he  had  spoken  to  a  shorthand 
writer,  in  order  that  he.  after  his  return  home,  might  communicate 
it  to  Marlialis.  The  circumstance  that  Galeno  after  his  return  to 
Kome  had  seen  this  sjieech  (which,  as  he  himself  confesses,  had  orig- 
inated in  party  zeal)  in  the  hands  of  many  caused  him  to  make  the 
resolution  never  again  to  speak  in  public. 

It  is  evidently  this  passage  to  which  the  Arabian,  Mustafa  Ben 
Abdallah  Katib  Jelebi,  usually  named  Haji  Khalfa,  alludes  in  his 
mention  of  Roman  shorthand  writing.  Only  he  does  not  .seem  to 
have  had  the  te.\t  before  him.  but  merely  reported  from  memorj-. 

To  the  Christian  church,  as  we  shall  show  in  the  following  re- 
marks, tachygraphy  was  of  essential  serAice. 

At  first  the  shorthand  writers  used  to  note  down  on  their  own  ac- 
count, what  concerned  the  vicissitudes,  utterances  and  deaths  of  the 
highly  celebrated  martyrs  of  the  church,  but  subsetpiently,  probably 
from  the  beginning  of  tlie  third  century,  they  acted  as  official  shorthand 
writers  {unUirii  eccleniuKtici).  Under  the  reign  of  Decius,  ecdemiAticen 
are  said  to  have  lx»en  appointed  by  the  Roman  Bishop  Fabian  to 
note  down  the  historj'  of  the  suflFerings  of  the  martyrs. 

These  martyrs'  acts  and  martyrologies  were  conducted  independ- 
ently of  the  acts  of  the  examining  judges  and  the  Christians  were 
able  often  to  procure  them,  by  bribing  the  judicial  shorthand  writers, 
or  their  servants.  The  martyrs'  acts  and  martyrologies  were  col- 
lected and  preserved  in  the  church  archives,  and  publicly  read  at  the 
martyrs'  anniversaries  in  order  thereby  to  recall  the  lives,  sufferings' 
and  death  of  these  men. 

TRACEABI-E    HISTORY   OF   THE   ART. 

A  certain  Aucharus  (according  to  others,  Eucharius  or  Varus)  is 
said  to  have  witnessed  the  proceedings  against  Saint  Theodoret,  and 
to  have  Ikjcu  an  attentive  witness  of  all  the  tortures  to  which  tho.se 


31 

martyrs  were  subjected,  until,  overcome  with  sympathy  for  their 
sufferings,  he  threw  away  the  writing  tablets  and  cast  himself  at  the 
feet  of  the  Saint.  Grenesius,  of  Aries,  likewise  showed  his  disdain, 
and  refused  to  assist  at  so  horrible  a  scene.  The  saints  Neon  and 
Turbon  were  also  stenographers.  So  was  a  deacon  by  the  name  of 
Cornelius.  Finalh',  Siegel  mentions  still  another,  a  notary,  also  men- 
tioned by  TertuUian,  who  was  tormented  by  evil  spirits. 

It  has  already  been  intimated,  when  speaking  of  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  Christians,  that  shorthand  wjis  employed  in  the  law 
courts,  and  we  meet  with  a  convincing  allusion  to  the  same  practice 
in  the  writings  of  Eunapius  concerning  the  life  of  the  sophists. 

PrSaresius.  of  Cilsjvrea.  in  Cappadocia,  (376-368  A.  D.)  succeeded 
his  instructor  in  the  office  of  teacher  at  Athens,  and  secured,  through 
his  extraordinary  eloquence,  so  many  scholars  that  his  adherents 
outnumbered  those  of  all  the  other  sophists,  in  consequence  of  which 
a  bitter  feeling  spi-ang  up  between  his  disciples  and  those  of  the  other 
teachei-s,  so  that  the  Pnetor  found  himself  compelled  to  banish 
Proaresius  from  the  city.  The  successor  in  the  prsletorship,  how- 
ever, recalled  the  exiled  man,  and  the  latter,  immediately  on  re- 
turning to  Athens,  delivered  such  a  brilliant  lect»u-e  that  the  assem- 
bled multitude  were  carried  away  with  enthusiasm.  It  was  on  this 
occasion  that  the  orator  requested  that  shorthand  writers,  who  dailj' 
reported  the  words  of  the  Themis,  should  be  assigned  to  him.  that 
they  might  record  his  entire  speech.  The  shorthand  writers  were,  with 
great  ditKculty,  able  to  follow  the  words  of  the  orator.  To  excite  the 
still  greater  admiration  of  the  Athenians,  he  turned  to  the  stenographers 
and  demanded  of  them  to  minutel}'  observe  whether  he  still  accu- 
rately remembered  what  he  had  said,  and  he  then  i-epeated  the  whole 
speech  without  the  least  error. 

That  t^ichygraphers,  exceptorea.  otticiated  as  public  officers  in  court 
proceedings  is  conclusively  shown  b}-  the  pas.sages  from  the  Pandects 
cited  below.  Besides,  Damaskios  alludes,  in  the  life  of  Isidor,  to 
this  practice.  We  refer  to  the  passage  in  the  Pandects  to  show  that  even 
wills  were  written  in  shorthand.  If  Gabelsberger  interprets  from  the 
passage  in  Am.  Marcellinus:  "Notaries  stood  there  who  immedi- 
'-ately  communicated  to  Ctesar  whatever  was  asked  and  answered." 
that  tachygraphei-s  are  identical  with  notaries  in  translation,  he  is 
clearly  contradicted  h\  Valesius,  a  commentator  of  the  Roman  au- 
thors, who,  in  a  foot  note  upon  the  above  quoted  words,  expressly 
states  a  distinction  between  notarii  and  exceptores,  and  only  recog- 
nizes tachygraphers  in  the  latter  word. 

The  story  related  by  Am.  Marcellinus,  in  the  details  of  which  it  is 
stated  that  the  wife  of  a  general  named  Barbatio,  called  As.syria.  caused 
her  female  slave,  who  was  familiar  with  sign-writing  (notarum 
perita),  to  write  a  letter  to  her  husband,  is  but  a  weak  argument  for 


32 

the  supposition  that  stenography  was  extensively  employed  a(  the 
time,  as  it  is  not  evident  from  the  passage  quoted  whether  a  real 
stenography  or  only  a  secret  writing  was  meant. 

Again  reverting  to  our  statementsconcerning the  early  employment 
of  shorthand  writing  in  the  Christian  era,  we  must  remember  that 
very  early  in  that  era  it  was  customary  to  have  the  speeches  of  the 
first  ecclesiastical  teachers  reported  by  tachygraphers.  We  read  in 
Origen  (185-254  A.  D.)  that  after  he  had  passed  his  sixtieth  year,  and 
had  acquired  great  skill  in  speaking,  he  permitted  shorthand  writers 
to  report  his  speeches,  a  practice  which  he  had  not  previously 
allowed. 

He  dictated  his  critical  exegetical  studies  concerning  the  Bible  to 
seven  or  more  shorthand  Mriters,  who  intermittently  changed  with 
each  other,  which  dictations  were  afterwards  given  to  calygraphers 
(some  of  whom  were  girls)  to  be  written  out.  The  majority 
of  his  homilies  have  been  preserved  to  us  through  copies  made 
by  others,  as  he  was  not  accustomed  to  write  them  him.self. 

So  with  Gregory,  Bisliop  of  Nazianz,  (318-390)  in  his  33nd  dis- 
coui-se,  in  which  he  bids  farewell  to  his  congregation  at  ^^onstantino- 
ple,  and  expressly  mentions  shorthand  writers,  who,  openly  or  se- 
cretly reported  his  words.  Augusti  interprets  the  words  ipa\tti>ai 
and  ya'^ddvooffui  used  on  this  occasion  so  that  by  the  fonner  tachjg- 
raphei-s  were  meant,  who  wrote  down  with  Gregory's  previous 
knowledge,  and  who,  therefore,  were  a  kind  of  otficial  writers,  but 
that  by  the  latter  tachygi-aphers  were  meant,  who  wrote  without  his 
jMirmission,  and  who  perhaps  had  been  secretly  sent  by  his  adversaries 
in  order  to  secure  something  by  which  they  could  accuse  him.  Like- 
wise, several  zealous  scholars  tachygraphically  reported  what  the 
apostolic  father  Cyrillus,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  (died  386  A.  D.)  de- 
livered concerning  the  fundamental  doctrines  and  mysteries  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

Socrates  relates  that  the  sensible  and  practical  sermons  of  John 
Chrysostom.  presbyter  at  Athens,  (347-407  A.  D.)  were  partly  pub- 
lished by  himself  and  partly  reported  by  shorthand  writers,  which  lat- 
terfact  is  positively  confirmed  by  Nikephoros  and  Georgius  Patriarcha. 
Concerning  Atticus,  Bishop  of  Constantinople,  the  second  successor 
of  John,  it  is  said,  according  to  our  authorities,  that  his  .sermons 
were  so  ordinary  that  they  were  not  deemed  worthy  of  being  reported. 

Tlie  esteem  in  which  Gaudentius,  of  Brescia,  (died  410  A.  I).)  Bishop 
of  Sebusa,  was  held  is,  among  other  things,  made  apparent  by  the  fact 
that  many  of  his  sermons  were  taken  down  by  tachygraphere.  But 
Gaudentius  did  not  look  with  favor  on  the  stenographers,  as  he  did 
not  consider  their  reports  of  his  sermons  true  pictures  of  his  words. 
He  feared  his  enemies  would  take  advantage  of  the  custom  of  writ- 
ing down  the  sermons  and  ascribe  to  him  sermons  which  would  cause 


33 

him  to  be  suspected  of  heresj\  "Gaudentius  really  had,"  says 
Augusti,  "every  reason  to  be  on  his  guard,  as  he  was  violently  per- 
"secuted  by  the  Arians,  and  his  sernaons  were  frequently  falsified 
"and  misrepresented."  Sometimes  he  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of 
his  friends  to  review  and  correct  his  reported  sermons. 

It  is  related  of  the  apostolic  father,  Aurelius  Augustinus,  (354r430 
A.  D.)  that  his  sermons,  which  were  attended  by  a  great  number  of 
heretics,  were  stenographed  whenever  occasion  offered.  This  is  also 
indicated  by  his  own  words. 

A  sermon  delivered  by  Archbishop  Eusebius,  of  Alexandria,  an 
influential  and  powerful  clergyman,  who  probably  lived  in  Jus- 
tinian's time,  is  in  existence  in  two  forms — a  lengthy  one  and  an 
abbreviated  one.  That  the  short  one  is  not  an  epitome  of  the  longer 
one  is  evident,  for  it  contains  passages  which  are  not  found  in  the 
longer.  It  is  very  probable  that  these  two  forms  represent  two  re- 
ports of  this  sermon,  which  were  written  down  by  different  short- 
hand writers. 

Gregory,  the  Great,  (Pope  from  590-604)  observes  in  the  dedication 
to  Bishop  Maximus  of  his  homilies  on  the  Prophet  Ezekiel,  that 
he  had  reviewed  and  corrected  these  sermons,  which  had  been  taken 
down  by  tachygraphers. 

"  Again,"  Neander  says.  "  the  publication  of  the  records  in  the  ec- 
' '  clesiastical  proceedings  {gesta  ecdesiastica),  which  were  taken  down 
"with  great  accuracy,  made  necessary  the  appointment  of  secre- 
' '  taries  from  the  clergy  (notarii,  exceptores),  who  were  skilled  in 
"  rapid  writing  with  abbreviations. "  The  pleadings  and  important 
proceedings  at  the  Councils,  and  especially  the  discussions  concerning 
dogmatical  subjects  between  the  true  believers  and  heretics,  had  to  be 
reported  in  shorthand.  Eusebius  relates,  for  instance,  that  a  discus- 
sion between  a  certain  Malchion  and  Paulus,  of  Somosata,  was  faith- 
fully reported  by  shorthand  writers,  and  Socrates  relates  the  same  of 
a  religious  contest  of  Basilius  Ancyranus  with  Photinus. 

We  find  further  the  following  proofs  that  the  "Tironean  Notes" 
were  employed  in  the  Councils — the  church  gatherings.  The 
records  of  the  great  conference  held  at  Carthage  on  the  2nd  of  June, 
411,  confirm  the  fact  that  the  Donatists  obtained  the  publication  of  the 
preceding  conference,  the  proceedings  of  which  were  stenographed. 
St.  Augustin  relates,  in  his  141st  letter,  that  eight  stenographers,  two 
writing  alteruatelj',  reported  the  speeches  of  the  Bishops  assembled  in 
Carthage.  We  also  read,  in  his  44th  letter,  that,  as  the  notaries  were 
not  wUling  to  stenograph  any  one  of  his  speeches,  his  faithful  adher- 
ents themselves  took  the  trouble  to  do  it,  which  goes  to  show  that 
shortliand  writing  was  very  prevalent. 

Hefele,  in  his  history  of  the  Councils,  gives  a  further  instance  of 
the  employment  of  notaries  to  report  their  proceedings.     Clerical 
5 


34 

men,  he  says,  especially  deacons,  were  used  as  secretaries,  notaries, 
ifcc,  in  the  synods;  thus,  for  instance,  in  Chalcedon  the  notaries,  and 
particularly  their  chief,  Primicerius  notaiiorum,  had  considerable  in- 
fluence, although  tliey  were  not  entitled  to  vote.  Some  of  these 
notaries  were  official,  and  served  the  Synod  itself,  but  every  indi- 
vidual Bishop  could  bring  his  own  notary',  and  through  him  could 
record  the  proceedings  of  the  sessions,  excepting  at  the  Robber's 
Synod,  where  the  tyrannical  Dioskurus  allowed  only  his  own  no- 
taries and  those  of  his  friends  to  be  present. 

"  In  some  churches  young  men  who  wei-e  to  be  educated  for  the 
"ministerial  services  were  chosen  for  such  tachygraphical  purposes, 
"as,  for  instance,  to  the  office  of  reader.  Epiphanius,  subsequently 
"Bishop  of  Ticinum  (Pa via),  in  the  5th  century,  became  'lector' 
"when  he  was  eight  years  old,  and,  as  soon  as  he  had  acquired 
■'practice  in  the  use  of  abbre%'iations.  he  was  received  among  the 
''exceptares  of  the  church." 

"The  notaries  occupied  similar  positions  to  the  Apocritriarien 
"(that  is,  deputies  who  acted  in  the  name  of  others,  especially  for 
"  high  church  officials),  as  do  our  secretaries  of  legations." 

"Furthermore,  the  Bishops  and  Patriarchs,  on  their  official  jour- 
"neys,  used  shorthand  writere  as  secretaries." 

"In  Rome,  in  the  (Jth  century,  there  were  twelve  noturios  regio- 
"  nation,  each  of  whom,  in  his  district  (regio),  performed  the  duties  of 
"a  notary  in  ordinary  affairs  and  business,  in  judicial  and  non-judi- 
"  cial  proceedings,  and  regarding  donations  and  grants.  Here  was  also 
"  the  Primiceiius  notai-iornm,  who  was  afterwards  called  Vrotono- 
"  tanm,  (a  title  which  Gregory  had  already  known),  and  corre- 
"sponded  to  the  llpcoro-  tu»  r^tirfaair/ixiuj  -Mi-ainur^  at  Constanli- 
"  nople,  a  man  of  rank  and  influence.  The  notaries  were,  especially 
"in  ancient  times,  occasionally  called  charlularii.ox  yapruruaipu: 
"as  well  &s ya[tr»a>b)M/.t':.  I»  Constantinople,  ;iiya^  yapTo<p6Xa^ 
"was  a  great  dignitary,  equal  to  Secretary  of  State,  while  the  other, 
*■'■  yapToifblay.i':^  corresponded  to  the  ordinary' .secretaries. "  In  our 
opinion,  it  appears;  from  the  above  that  notaries  alresidy  at  that 
time  bore  rather  the  character  of  attorneys-at-law,  or  such  as  were 
skilled  in  the  interpretation  of  law,  than  that  of  shorthand  writers. 
Tachygraphy  was  certainly  of  great  importance  to  them  in 
these  tran.sactions.  although  this  fact  does  not  appear  promi- 
nently. This  furnishes  considerable  evidence  that  tachygraphy 
proved  of  great  .service  to  the  representatives  of  the  Christian  church, 
in  the  publication  of  their  works,  in  the  copying  of  books,  and  in 
letter  writing,  ^. 

Epiphanius  speaks  in  high  terms  of  one  of  his  scholare,  who,  with 
great  care,  wrote  down  in  shorthand  signs  his  work  concerning  the 


35 

heresies ;    and  again,  of  another,  Hypatios,    who   carefully  trans- 
cribed it  from  the  tablets. 

Basilius,  the  Great,  (328-379  A.  D.),  likewise  refei-s  to  tachygraphy. 
In  a  letter  to  a  shorthand  writer,  he  says:  "Words  have  wings; 
"therefore  we  use  signs,  so  we  can  attain,  in  writing,  the  swiftness 
"of  the  winged  speech.  But  you,  oh,  youth,  must  make  the  signs 
"  very  carefully,  and  pay  attention  to  an  accurate  arrangement  of 
"  them,  as  through  a  little  mistake  a  long  speech  will  be  disfigured, 
"while  by  the  care  of  the  writer  the  speech  may  l)e  correctly  re- 
"peated." 

JHieronj^mus  relates  that,  on  account  of  the  feebleness  of  his  eye- 
sight, and  principally  in  consideration  of  the  condition  of  his  health, 
he  could  not  himself  write,  but  that  he  dictated  his  thoughts  to  a 
tachygrapher,  who,  when  he  (Hieronymus)  at  any  time  reflected,  in 
order  to  think  of  something  better,  impatiently  frowned  and  re- 
minded him  by  gestures  that  he  was  unoccupied.  In  this  author's 
work  many  allusions  are  made  to  the  employment  of  shorthand 
writers. 

Evodius,  Bishop  of  Uzalis,  in  Africa,  who  flourished  about  the 
year  420  A.  D.,  refers  in  one  of  his  letters  to  a  young  tachygrapher, 
who  rendered  him  excellent  service  in  his  work. 

C.  Sollius  Appollinaris  Sidonius  likewise  mentions  stenographers. 

So  does  Gregory,  the  Great,  who  frequently  availed  himself  of  the 
aid  of  shorthand  writers.  He  expressly  states  this  in  several  pas- 
images  of  his  writings.  Anscharius,  Archbishop  of  Hamburg  in  the 
9th  century  after  Christ,  is  said  to  have  written  down  many  things  in 
tachj'graphical  signs  to  the  praise  of  Almighty  God  and  for  the  chas- 
tisement of  the  godless. 

In  addition,  we  must  mention  Epaphroditus,  "lector"  and  shorthand 
writer  to  the  Bishop  Hellanicus,  of  Rhodes ;  Athanasius,  the  notary 
to  Alexander  ;  and  Proclus,  the  notary  to  Bishop  Atticus.  FinaUy, 
Montfaucou  refers  to  Baanes,  notary  to  Archbishop  Areta,  of 
Csesarea,  and  to  a  certain  Varus. 

Having  thus  shown  how  manifold  was  the  employment  of  tachy- 
graphy in  the  earlj'  Christian  churches,  we  can  still  refer  to  other 
records  which  contain  allusions  to  this  art.  If,  in  the  second  vol- 
ume, second  section  of  the  "  Dictionary  of  the  Greek  Language, 
"edited  by  Franz  Passow,"  under  the  word  '■*■  Tayuypatpio),  short- 
hand writing"  is  meant,  quoting  Tzetzes,  this  citation  might  ha  very 
questionable  evidence  for  the  history  of  our  art.  The  passage  in 
itself,  as  it  appears,  is  so  corrupt  that  a  sensible  transla- 
tion seems  scarcely  possible,  and  we  will,  therefore,  leave  it  unde- 
cided whether  a  stenographic  writer  could  really  be  meant  by  the 
word  Tayuypaipatv.  It  is  our  opinion  that  it  refers  rather  to  quick, 
careless  writing,  than  to  stenography. 


36 

In  consequence  of  the  existing  conditions  and  institutions 
of  the  Roman  world,  which  were  entirely  different  from  the 
mediaeval,  as  well  as  from  modern  times,  the  multiplication  of  books 
could  be  carried  on  in  those  times  to  the  most  stupendous  propor- 
tions without  costing  much  more  than  at  the  present  time.  This 
great  multiplication  was  only  possible  through  slaves,  and  what  the 
printing  press  now  accomplishes  mechanically  was  performed  then 
by  himdreds  or  thousands  of  human  hands.  Even  in  Cicero's  time, 
Pomponius  Atticus  made  a  business  of  this  multiplication.  He  had 
among  his  slaves  numerous  laborers  in  everj'  branch  of  the  manufac- 
ture of  books  ;  he  had  some  who  glued  and  polished  the  papyrus  ; 
others  who  made  envelopes  artistically  and  elegantly  ;  skillful  copy- 
ists and  stenographers,  and,  finally,  experienced  and  learned  correct- 
ors. It  would  lead  us  too  far  from  our  subject  to  here  consider 
more  fully  the  development  and  business  of  the  book  trade  in  the 
Roman  empire — but  we  may  consistently  ask  the  question  :  "  What 
had  stenography  to  do  with  these  branches  of  industry?"  The 
answer  is  simply:  "That  this  art  influenced  writing  generally." 
There  were  numerous  abbreviations  from  stenograph}-  incorporated 
into  the  common  script ;  abbreviations  which  were  universally  intel- 
ligible. They  were  used  most  extensively  in  the  greater  part  of  the 
manuscripts  of  the  ancient  classics.  The  stenography  of  the  ancients 
was  similar  to  the  common  script,  and  probably  the  stenographic- 
slaves  were  used  at  the  same  time  for  stenographing  and  for  copying. 
As  the  readers  were  instructed  in  the  right  explanation,  so  the  book- 
copyists  were  instructed  and  drilled  in  the  proper  employment  of  the 
stenographic  signs  in  order  to  complete  the  copies  in  the  shortest 
possible  time  ;  the  use  of  more  full  word-forms  was  only  required  in 
books  of  elegant  style.  In  this  way  the  common  editions  could  be 
very  quickly  prepared,  as  the  reader,  naturally,  was  very  familiar 
with  the  meaning  of  the  abbreviated  signs.  Of  course  the  great 
number  of  mistakes  in  the  manuscripts,  of  which  Cicero  complained , 
must  be  ascribed  in  part,  at  least,  to  the  use  of  siglae  and  the  Tiron- 
ean  Notes,  which  were  often  misunderstood  or  inaccurately  copied, 
giving  rise  to  misunderstandings  and  causing  later  critics  to  have 
much  trouble  with  the  disfigured  texts. 

If  the  ancient  stenographers  earned  much  praise,  they  were  also 
severely  punished.  For  instance,  it  was  decreed  that  calygraphers 
and  stenographers  who  copied  the  writings  of  the  teachers  of  hereti- 
cal doctrines  should  have  their  hands  hewn  off,  and  Aelius  Lampri- 
dius  relates  that  the  Emperor  Severus  had  the  sinews  of  a  notary's  fin- 
gers cut  on  account  of  a  falsification.  It  appears  even  that  in  certain 
cases  the  employment  of  the  Tironean  shorthand  writing,  which 
gradually  crept  into  the  manuscripts,  was  forbidden.  Justinian 
commanded  that  the  texts  of  the  codes  should  not  be  written  in  signs 
or  enigmatical  abbreviations. 


37 

Gabelsberger  says  ' '  that  it  is  not  decided  whether  this  f  re- 
"  quently  repeated,  but  not  always  heeded,  edict  was  also  directed 
"against  the  employment  of  the  Tironean  Notes  or  any  system 
"  of  a  shorthand  writing  in  judicial  and  other  proceedings;"  but, 
if  we  consider  that  the  transcriber,  in  order  to  do  his  day's  work 
quicker,  used  signs  and  commonly  known  Tironean  Notes  in  the 
text,  and,  as  Kopp  says,  that  traces  of  such  signs  really  exist  among 
the  abbreviations  used  in  judicial  proceedings,  the  above  mentioned 
imperial  decree  must  have  referred  to  tachygraphical  signs  as  well, 
in  the  broader  sense. 

The  order  of  the  Emperor  Basilius,  quoted  by  Gibbs,  from  the 
Cedrenos,  does  not,  apparently,  apply  in  this  connection.  In  that 
command  the  employment  of  the  abbreviations  for  numbers  was  for- 
bidden, and  it  was  ordered  that  they  should  be  so  written  that  every 
countrj'man  could  read  them. 

We  will  now  undertake  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  the  social 
standing  and  the  reputation  of  the  ancient  tachygraphers.  The 
record  from  these  earlier  times  is,  for  the  most  part,  not  at  all  edify- 
ing. Notarii,  as  well  as  librarii,  were,  as  Kopp  says,  the  most  uncul- 
tivated people.  Seneca,  as  we  have  alread}'  mentioned,  calls  them 
the  lowest  slaves,  and  if  the  expression  of  Cicero,  which  Ave 
have  likewise  alluded  to,  refers  to  tachygraphers,  severe  cen- 
sure must  fall  upon  their  performances.  Kopp  truly  observes 
that  if  they  were  educated  it  is  very  certain  that  they  did 
not  write  without  making  mistakes.  The  necessity  for  quickly 
noting  down  upon  the  wax  tablets  what  they  heard  left  them  no  time 
to  observe  the  orthography.  They  stenographed  according  to  the 
hearing,  rather  than  according  to  the  sense.  It  .should  be  added 
that  through  the  carelessness  of  those  dictating,  the  words  which 
were  pronounced  otherwise  than  written,  were  not  noted  in  full, 
but  abbreviated.  Julius  Firmicus  Maternus,  of  Sicily,  (336  A.  D.) 
and  others  reproacli  tachygraphers  as  being  malevolent  dishonest 
vagabonds  in  everj'  respect — scurrilous  words  which  can  scarcely  be 
justified. 

We  have  yet  to  mention  a  noteworthy  thing,  namely  :  how  high 
a  value  was  placed  upon  a  .shorthand  writer.  Justinian  valued  one  at 
about  sixty  dollars.  Apart  from  what  has  been  mentioned,  it 
appears  from  a  letter  of  Bishop  Synesius,  which  speaks  of  a 
ap^u)'/  Tijc  (Tomiopia'z  twv  rayoypdfwv  by  the  name  of  Marcus, 
that  stenographers  at  a  later  time  must  have  enjoyed  a  certain  prom- 
inent station.  As  an  example — if  we  may  be  permitted  in  this  case 
to  translate  b^irffxuptu-z  as  a  shorthand  writer — Trotz,  the  commen- 
tator of  the  works  of  Hugo  on  the  origin  of  writing,  mentions  a  cer- 
tain Procopius,  figuring  in  a  speech  by  Themistius,  who,  under  the 
Emperors  Valentinanus  and  Valens,  obtained  great  dignity  and 
honor. 


n8 

As  to  the  so-called  notarii  ecdesiastici,  we  have  already  si>oken  of 
thera  when  mentioning  the  services  which  the  tachygraphers  had 
rendered  by  reporting  tlie  sayings  of  the  martyrs. 

Finally,  as  regards  the  credil)ility  of  the  tachygraphieal  reports,  it 
was  considei-od  tiiat  they  did  not  deserve  full  confidence  until  they 
ha«l  been  entered  in  the  records.  This  closely  resembles  our  custom 
of  to-day,  when  the  verbatim  report  of  the  stenographer  has  no 
official  character,  although  it  no  doubt  offers  a  better,  because  a 
more  objective  and  complete  picture  of  the  speech  than  the  official 
record. 

To  give  a  clear  and  corapreheasive  sUitement  of  the  social  standing 
of  the  tachygraphei-s  of  the  olden  times,  we  must,  if  possible,  pene- 
trate the  darkness  which  still  hovers  over  the  art  of  writing  among 
the  Romans. 

In  regard  to  tlie  materials  used  by  stenograpliei*s  we  will  briefly 
state  the  following  :  In  ancient  times,  in  place  of  our  memorandum 
books  and  pencils,  small  wooden  tables,  provided  with  raised  mar- 
gins, were  used.  These  were  laid  over  with  a  thin  coating  of  wax — 
tn/mlfie  eeratae,  eenie,  codicilli,  puffillnrex — on  which  the  writing  was 
scratched  with  a  metallic,  or  bone,  pencil — »tilv8,  yrapkvcm, — pointed 
on  one  end  for  writing,  and  the  other  end  left  blunt  for  erasing, 
(nlilum  oei'(ere).  These  were  used  by  schohirs  for  writing  down  their 
thoughts  and  annotations,  as  well  as  by  business  men,  for  keeping 
book  accounts,  in  hou.sekeeping,  and  for  correspondence.  In  fact, 
this  appears  to  have  been  the  most  jwpular  writing  material.  The 
custom  of  writing  on  such  wax  tablets  continued,  probably  in  conse- 
quence of  its  convenience,  and  especially  on  account  of  the  easiness 
of  the  Avriting,  almost  to  our  time.  What  wonder,  therefore,  that 
the  shorthand  writers  made  use,  almost  exclusively,  of  the  wax  tab- 
lets and  .styluses,  several  of  which  were  generally  bound  together — 
hence  the  name,  diptychi,  triptychi,  ».tc. 

The  employment  of  the  kind  of  writing  material  just  mentioned 
was,  unquestionably,  a  great  loss  of  information  to  ix)sterity.  As  soon 
as  a  .siieech  was  stenographed  and  transcribed  the  wax  was  rublted 
smooth  in  order  that  another  might  bt*  taken  down  on  the  same  sur- 
face, while  the  transcribed  speech  was  elaborated  and  published. 
To  the  best  of  our  knowledge,  no  real  stenographic:  writing  has  been 
transmitted  to  us  ;  we  know  only  the  elaborate  products  of  the  ora- 
tory of  those  days.  What  a  loss  to  the  examiner  of  the  historical 
domain  of  tachygraphyl  What  a  loss  to  the  study  of  the  oratory 
of  the  ancients  I 

Here  we  can  only  allude  briefly  to  the  chai-acter  of  the  Tiro- 
nean  2sotes.  For  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  ancient  tachy- 
graphy  we  must  refer  our  readers  to  the  very  copious  and  often 
cited  work  by  Kopp,  as  well  as  to  the  excellent  works  of  Professor 


39 

Wilhelm  Schmitz,  of  Cologne,  which  have  been  published  in  the 
"  Panstenographikon,"  and  in  the  Reinisches  Musetini  for  Philology, 
under  the  title  "  Tironiana,"  in  the  SymboJ/t  philulogm'um  Bonnenmum. 

The  so-called  Tironean  Notes  originated,  as  Kopp  has  plainly 
proven,  from  the  majuskeln — Latin  capital  letters — with  which  are 
mixed  several  Greek  letters.  These,  naturally,  through  the  haste  of 
the  tachygraphers,  were  often  abbreviated  and  mutilated  even  to  un- 
discernibleness,  and  their  form  changed  after  they  were  combined 
with  this  or  that  sign,  or  even  written  in  a  different  order. 

Only  such  parts  of  the  capitals  were  employed  as  api)eared  neces- , 
sary  for  the  designation  of  a  word.  A  capital  letter,  which  was  mostly, 
but  not  always,  abbreviated  and  simplified,  either  stood  in  the  place 
of  a  whole  word,  or  a  sign  was  added  which  represented  the  end- 
ing ;  or  there  were  two  or  more  parts  of  the  capitals  placed  together, 
or  with  the  addition  of  small  terminal  signs  united  in  one  stroke, 
which  represented  either  the  endings,  the  tenses  of  the  words,  or 
helped  to  distinguish  cognate  words  from  one  another.  Those 
larger  capitals,  representing  the  root  or  the  radical  of  a  word  are 
called  xigna  paincipalia ;  while  the  smaller  signs  representing  the 
terminations  or  tenses  placed  beloAV,  above,  to  the  right  or  to  the  left 
of  the  signum  principale,  arc  the  uuxlliariu.  These  smaller  signs  con- 
sisted either  of  parts  of  capitals,  or  of  lines  and  points.  This 
ancient  tachygraphy,  representing  through  the  ttigna  pnneijxilm 
and  uiixilunui,  whole  words  or  even  whole  sentences  (which  may 
be  called  verbaJi-x)  we  must  distinguish  from  the  xyllnbai-ut,  by  which 
syllables  only  are  designated. 

It  is  very  evident  that,  in  the  ancient  practice,  a  certain  oscillation 
in  the  mode  of  abbreviation  was  common  among  the  fraternity,  and 
that  the  latter,  in  the  haste  of  writing,  did  not  paj'  too  strict  attention 
to  orthogifiphy,  l)ut  represented  frequently  occurring  words  by  one 
sign  and  involuntarily  left  unrepresented  immaterial  parts,  syllables, 
words,  common  phrases,  which  could  easily  be  replaced  by  the  con- 
text. That  the  demotic  Avriting  of  the  Egyptians  exerted  an  in- 
fluence on  the  ancient  shorthand  writing,  as  has  recently  been  main- 
tained, we  decline  to  accept.  There  may  have  been  abbreviations 
used  in  the  hieroglyphics — as  everyw-here — but  this,  in  principle  is 
very  different  from  stenography.  It  is  not  demonstrable  that  any 
similarity  exists,  especially  in  such  simple  forms  as  those  used  for 
u,  e  and  z.  For,  even  in  Grerman  writing,  we  csiu  trace  something 
resembling  the  forms  of  Anibic  letters. 

The  demotic  writing  is  an  abbreviation  of  the  writing  with  short- 
ened or  rude  pictures,  of  the  second  jiower ;  it  may  include,  as  all 
writings  do,  word-signs,  (our  ciphers  are  indeed,  of  the  same  nature), 
but  we  cannot  convince  ourselves  that  between  it  and  the  Roman 
shorthand  writing  there  is  any. connection. 


40 

As  regards  the  tachygraphy  of  the  Greeks,  Kopp  denies,  and  suc- 
cessfull}'  proves  his  denial,  that  the  Roman  shorthand  writing  was 
probablj'  borrowed  from  the  Greeks.  This  view  is  in  opposition  to 
that  of  Lipsius,  Carpentier  and  Amati,  whose  opinions  Gabelsberger 
supports,  in  so  far  as  he  believed,  ' '  that  the  idea  of  the  art 
"of  shorthand  writing  of  the  Greeks  had  passed  over  to  the 
"Romans,  and  that  Tiro  having  obtained  some  knowledge 
"of  tachygraphy,  directed  himself,  especially  during  his  next 
"sojourn  with  Cicero  in  Athens  and  Eleusis  which  ^as 
"chiefly  devoted  to  science,  to  improving  his  knowledge."  But 
closer  investigation  into  the  character  of  both  systems,  their 
similarity  and  dilferences,  clearly  shows  that  the  former  opin- 
ion is  absolutelj'  unfounded.  "  The  Greek  notes,  as  well  as  the  Ro- 
"man,  consist  of  majuskeln.  If  one  considers  this,  and  remembers 
"at  the  same  time  that  the  Latin  and  Greek  letters  (because  of  one 
' '  origin)  are  even  now  similar,  and  were  formerly  still  more  so,  we 
"can  easily  find  a  reason  for  that  similarity,  without  believing 
"that  one  writing  grew  out  of  the  other.  And  again,  in  spite  of  all 
"  similarity  in  the  arrangement  of  the  letters,  and  in  the  transposi- 
"  tion  of  the  signs,  &c.,  there  exists  such  an  extraordinary  difference 
' '  between  the  two  ways  of  writing  that  it  cannot  be  supposed  the  one 
"originated  from  the  other."  That  single  signs  had  passed  from  the 
Greek  to  the  Roman  tachygraphy  can  readilj^  be  admitted,  but  there 
is  nothing  remarkable  about  that,  because  Roman  shorthand  writers 
must  frequently  have  been  comi>elled  to  write  Greek.  Kopp  believes 
that  Greek  tachygraphy  did  uot-originate  until  the  third  or  fourth 
century.  He  believes  this  on  account  of  the  similarity  which  exists 
between  the  tachygraphic  signs  and  the  letters  in  manuscripts  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries. 

In  modern  times.  Dr.  Lehman,  a  member  of  the  Royal  Steno- 
graphic Institute,  has  made  a  specialty  of  Greek  stenography.  The 
result  of  his  investigation  is,  that  neither  the  time  of  the  first  appear- 
ance of  stenography  in  Greece,  nor  the  time  of  its  decline,  can  be 
determined  exactly.  We  have,  however,  given  sufficient  evidence 
in  the  numerous  foregoing  instances  and  data  quoted,  that  Greek 
shorthand  writing  found  manifold  practical  applications.  As  to  the 
question,  whetlier  the  writing  in  the  manuscript  3,032  of  the  Paris 
Library  is  really  a  sample  of  note-writing  which  the  Greek  short- 
hand writers  used,  Lehman  denies.  It  should  also  be  noticed  that 
the  Tironean  Notes  differ  from  the  Greek,  principally  because  the 
woid-forms  of  the  latter  were  written  by  syllables,  and  not,  as  the 
former,  with  one  stroke.     Aspirates  and  accents  were  added. 

Manuscripts  in  Tironean  Notes  have  not  come  down  to  us  from 
ancient  times.  AVhatever  is  preserved  of  the  kind  is  from  the  pens 
of  the  notaries,  who  used  the  tachj-graphic  forms,  but  were  not  able 
to  comprehend  the  substance  of  the  same.     Hence,  the  frequent  in- 


41 

termixing  of  common  writing  with  the  stenographic,  and  the  inaccu- 
rate word-forms  of  later  times. 

The  Tironean  Notes  were  no  longer  scriptura  Uteralis,  they  had 
grown  to  be  a  na-iptura  realis. 

If  we  go  into  details  concerning  what  has  been  preserved  in 
Tironean  Notes,  we  must  first  consider  the  collection  of  commen- 
taries on  Roman  tachygraphy,  of  which  we  find  a  treatise  in  the  ap- 
pendix to  JnHcnptionea  Antiquae  totius  orbis  Romani,  published  in 
1603,  in  Heidelberg,  by  Gruter,  {ex-officina  commeliniana);  the  ap- 
pendix being  part  of  a  sort  of  compendium  under  the  title  :  "  Notae 
Tullii  Tyronu  ac  Annaei  Senecae  sive  charaeteres,  quibus  utebantur 
Ronuini  veteres  in  scriptura  compendiaria  ubi  Litera  verbum  facit."  The 
notes  were  published  a  second  time  in  the  same  year  ("  iterum,"  says 
Gruter  in  the  dedication),  and  again  as  a  supplement  to  the  work  in 
the  Seneca  edition,  by  Andreas  Schott,  under  the  title  :  "  Notae 
Romanorum  veterum  quibus  Utera  verbum  fa^it  Tullii  Tyronis  Ciceronis 
liberti,  et  Annaei  Senecae;  Erutaenunc  primum  e  bibliotaphiis  editaeque 
a  Jano  Grutero.  Ex  officina  Commeliniana  CIO  10 CUT.  A  commen 
tator  says  of  Gruter's  work  :  Si  quern  dura  manet  sententia  judicis 
olim  Datnnatuuvi  aerumnis  8upplicii<<que  caput;  Hunc  neque  fabrilt 
lassant  ergastula  massa.  Nee  rigidas  vexant  fossa  metalla  manus : 
irrz'joYpafTi'^  texat;  nam,  cetera  quid  moror?  omnes  Poenarum 
fades  hie  lobar  unus  liabet."* 

"  If  we  consider  this  collection  more  critically,"  says  Dr.  Krause, 
"  we  find  that  the  first  commentary  begins  by  explaining  the  steno- 
' '  graphic  designation  of  prefixes — prepositions — then  it  proceeds  to 
"indicate  their  combination  with  the  most  usual  verbs,  which  con- 
"stitutes  almost  a  third  part  of  the  whole  work.  In  the  passage 
"where  Isidor  says  that  Tiro  had  written  a  commentary  on  stenog- 
"raphy,  he  adds,  sed  tantum  praepositionum — but  only  for  the 
"prepositions,  and,  therefore,  appears  to  intimate  that  in  the  com- 
"  i)endium,  which  he  (Isidor)  knew,  the  first  commentary,  is  the  one 
"that  Tullius  Tiro  edited.  The  title  of  this  work  agrees  completely 
"  with  this  declaration.  The  same  work,  as  we  now  have  it,  com- 
" prises  a  great  collection  of  commentaries  from  different  times; 
•  ■  the  last  of  which  was  written  in  the  Christian  era,  and  everj-- 
"  where  we  find  traces  of  alterations  and  additions  made  at  dif- 


[*The  appendix  being  part  of  a  sort  of  compendiam  under  the  title  :  "Notes  of  Tul- 
lius Tiro  and  Annaeus  Seneca,  or  characters,  which  the  ancient  Komans  were  In  the 
habit  of  using  in  abbreviated  writing,  where  a  letter  represented  a  word."  *  *  •  •* 
And  tij^ain,  as  a  supplement  to  the  work  in  the  edition  of  Seneca,  by  Andreas  Schott, 
under  the  title :  •'  Notes  of  the  ancient  Homans,  bj'  Tullius  Tiro,  a  freedman  of  (Jicero, 
and  Annaeus  Stneca,  now  brought  forth  for  the  first  time  from  the  libraries,  and  edited 
by  Janus  Gruter,  in  which  a  sign  stands  for  a  word.  From  the  Commelian  collection 
(more  literally  '  workshop) of—    ♦    ♦    ♦    * 

A  commentator  says  of  Gruter's  .work:  "If  a  hard  judicial  sentence  fell  upon  any 
one,  in  older  times,  he  was  punished  by  torture  (or  hard  labor)  and  death.  Let  not  the 
inmates  of  the  house  of  correction  harrass  such  a  person  hereafter  with  the  tools  of  the 
artisan,  and  let  not  his  hands  be  pained  withharsn  metallic  instruments;  let  him  work 
at  (out?)  stenography.  Why  should  I  stop  to  say  more?  This  labor  contains  within 
itself  all  forms  of  punishment.] 

6 


42 

"  ferent  times.  Probably  at  the  time,  when  Christianity  l)ecame 
"the  predominant  religion,  everything  obsolete  and  paganish  was 
"expunged  from  the  commentaries  and  replaced  by  tlie  newly- 
"  formed  Christian  expressions,  so  that  the  number  of  written  charac- 
"  ters  remained  about  the  same." 

.    No  refutation  is  neces.sary  for  the  aasumption  of  Abbot  Joannis,  of 
Tritenheim,  that  Cicero  wrote  a  treatise  on  stenography. 

Undoubtedly  the  question  is  only  one  concerning  a  manuscript  of 
those  commentaries,  the  principal  part  of  which  is  Tiro's  work. 
Abbot  Joannes  relates  that  he,  in  the  year  1496,  from  his  love  of  books, 
searclied  through  several  libraries,  and  found,  in  a  cloister  of  his  order, 
a  neglected  and  dusty  copy  of  it,  and  exchanged  it  for  a  printed  copy 
of  the  work  of  St.  Auselni,  which  he  had  bought  "  for  the  sixth  part 
of  a  florin."  From  this  manuscript  Abbot  Joannes  abstracted  thirty 
Tironean  characters  and  incorporated  them  in  his  Polygraphy. 
When  Abbot  Joannes  makes  the  statement  that  Thascius  Caecilius 
Cyprianus,  Bishop  of  Carthage  (356  A.  D.),  multiplied  the  commen- 
taries on  the  Tironean  Notes  by  signs  for  newly -formed  words  for  the 
use  of  Christians,  and,  therefore,  made  the  work  more  u.seful  and  ac- 
ceptable to  the  believers,  he  asserts  Avhat  he  fails  to  prove,  and  the 
editors  and  commentators  of  the  writings  of  that  martyr  know  noth- 
ing of  such  a  circumstance.  In  opposition  to  this  statement,  W. 
Schmitz  {Ittoniami  540)  is  of  opinion  that  Trithemius  could  not 
justly  ascribe  this  action  to  St.  Cyprian  without  better  evidence;  and, 
as  great  Christian  influence  was  exerci.sed  in  the  editing  of  the  notes, 
and  the  interest  in  stenography  was  not  less  in  the  old  church  than 
in  our  days,  so  it  maj'  be  possible  that  the  active  Bi.shop  of  Carthage 
had  labored  on  the  Notes,  and  had  obtained  from  the  Trithemius 
manuscript  a  positive  statement  to  some  such  effect,  but  that  that  man- 
uscript has  been  lost,  according  to  all  accounts  of  later  times,  or  at 
least,  until  now  it  has  not  been  discovered.  Tritenheim  designates  the 
"^  Dictionarmm"  obtained  by  him  as  a  complete  collection  of  Tironean 
Notes.  The  number  of  the  same  was  .so  large  that  they  were  sufli. 
cient  to  take  down  anything  that  one  would  wish  to  write.  Kopp 
.surmises  that  St.  Eligius  published  a  similar  collection  of  Notes; 

The  basis  of  the  edition  by  Gruter  was  two  manuscripts,  while 
Kopp,  more  fortunate  than  his  jjredecessor,  found  the  lost  key  to  the 
Roman  tachygraphy  contained  in  seven  manuscripts,  which  he  used 
when  composing  his  ' '  Tachygraphy  of  the  Ancients."  Of  these  manu- 
scripts he  considers  the  one  preserved  at  Cassel  the  most  ancient, 
dating  back  in  the  8th  century.  The  examination  of  the  Wolfen- 
bllttler  manuscript,  the  great  value  of  which  the  librarians  Ebert 
and  Schonemann  mention,  was  not  granted  to  the  zealous  investiga- 
tor. Dr.  Krause  (to  whom,  through  the  proposition  of  the  directors 
of  the  Royal  Stenographic  Institute  at  Dresden,  the  necessary  means 
were  supplied  by  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  to  enable  hini  to  go  to 


43 

WolfenbUttel  to  examine  aud  copy  this  manuscript  at  the  librar}' 
there)  characterizes  the  "  Lexicon  notarum  Tironianarum"  as  excel- 
lent in  every  respect.  The  writing  was  neat  and  correct,  and  the 
text  more  complete  and  more  correct  than  the. one  given  by  Gruter. 

If,  by  the  way,  it  has  been  said  that  Sueton  wrote  a  work  on 
the  Notes,  which  has  l)een  supposed  by  many  to  be  a  dissertation  on 
or  compendium  of  the  Roman  tachygraphy.  this  supposition  is 
certainly  an  error.  The  writing  of  Sueton  in  question  re^ot  rd»v 
iV  To?c  ^ifiXtn:-:  ffrjfiziitf^  treats  of  the  critical  signs  of  the  gram- 
marians. 

The  Psalms  appear  to  have  been  written  in  Tironean  Notes  by  way 
of  preference,  and  these  often  served,  as  it  appears,  for  practice  in 
writing.  It  is,  therefore,  no  wonder  that  such  collections  of  Psalms 
written  in  Roman  shorthand  writing  have  come  down  to  us.  Kopp 
knew  of  three  ;  he  examined  two  of  them  which  were  in  Paris,  and 
which  originated  in  the  Tth  and  9th  centuries.  He  could  not  get 
l)ermis.sion  to  read  the  manuscript  at  Wolfenbiittel.  Yet,  Dr.  Krause 
has  fully  copied  this  manuscript,  and  afterwards  carefully  compared 
it  with  the  original.  It  is  to  be  found  now  in  the  library  of  the  Royal 
Stenographic  Institute  at  Dresden.  •'  It  does  not  merely  contain  the 
'•  Psalms,  but  also  seventeen  pages  of  different  songs  of  praise  from 
"the  Old  Test{\ment,  the  aratio  dominica,  the  symbolum  aposlolorum, 
"and  \hefideii  caiholicn  Alhnnnm  {Quie.iimque  cult),  all  written  in  the 
"  Latin  language  and  the  Tironean  Notes.  The  entire  manuscript  is 
"beautifully  written,  so  that  from  this  book,  more  than  from  the 
"  above  mentioned  (Wolfenbiittel)  code,  we  recognize  the  real  form 
"of  the  stenographic  signs  of  the  Romans,  which  apjjears often  dis- 
•'  figured  in  Gruter,  and  is  likewise  faulty  in  Kopp.  It  is  the  intention 
"to  print,  by  the  zincographic  process,  both  these  manuscripts  in  the 
"  WolfenbQttal  libraiy  :  the  so-callwl  Ijcxicon  Tironianum,  as  well  as 
"  the  one  mentioned  here,  so  they  may  be  of  service  to  the  sten- 
"ographic  public,  as  well  as  paleographers,  philologists  and  theolo- 
"  gians,  because  the  text,  written  in  Latin  and  in  the  Notes,  by  no 
'■'  means  harmonizes  everywhere  with  the  Vulgate,  aud,  besides,  it 
"  would  be  of  interest  to  compare  these  texts  of  the  Athanasian  creed 
"  with  the  one  more  generally  known." 

"  The  vicis-situdes  of  this  codex  are  remarkable.  Augustus,  Duke 
"of  Brunswick,  after  whom  a  most  complete  collection  of  codices, 
"  Augustei,'  is  c^\lled,  prepared  an  autograph  catalogue  of  the  Wolf- 
"enbQttel  library,  which  is  still  in  existence  and  is  especially  int«r- 
"  esting  a-s  regards  the  Tironean  Notes.  In  the  WolfenbUttel  copy 
"  of  Gruter's  edition  of  the  notes  there  is  a  passage  in  which  Abbot 
"  Joannes  of  Tritenheim  relates  that  he  saw  in  the  Sti-a&sburg  library  a 
"  psalter  written  in  the  Tironean  Notes,  on  the  margin  of  which  is 
" the  following  observation  in  the  Duke's  handwriting:  '  Invenitur 
"  '  {hoc  ps(tlterium)  jam  in  Ubrai-ia  affinis  Bucis  Pomeraniae  PhUijypi, 


44 

"  'cut  dono  dedi'  to  which  was  subsequently  added  :  '  Recejd  pout 
"  ^obitum  e^us.'  The  psalter  which  is  preserved  at  the  present  time 
"  in  Wolfenblxttel  is  the  same  that  Trithemius  saw  and  described  in 
"Strassburg  in  1498."  A  similar  book  of  Psalms  is  to  be  found  in 
the  library  of  St.  Germain  des  Prez. 

Moreover  the  following,  written  in  Tironean  Notes,  are  to  be  men- 
tioned :  Diplomas  and  a  capitulary  of  Louis  the  Pious,  a  letter  of 
Chrysostomus  to  Demetrius  rfe  compundione  coi'dis.  Dr.  Bethmann,  a 
co-laborer  on  Pertz's  Monumenta  Germaniae,  in  the  library  of  Val- 
enciennes, found  a  noteworthy  emploj'ment  of  the  Tironean  Notes. 
On  the  inside  of  the  binding  of  a  manuscript  of  the  10th  century, 
entitled  Paradisua  Smaragdi,  de  conversione  S.  S.  Pafrum,  there  was 
a  fragment  of  a  homily  on  the  prophecy  of  Jonas  in  a  vulgar 
dialect,  mi.xed  with  Latin,  in  which  all  the  Latin  and  a  few  words  of 
the  vulgar  idiom  were  written  in  Tironean  Notes.  (Pertz  Archiv 
VIIL  442.) 

Kopp  further  quotes  Hygt/ius  de  siderbius  (in  the  Library  at  Paris) 
and  Isidor  (in  the  Vatican  Library);  a  manuscript  of  Curtius  with 
marginal  and  concluding  observations  in  the  Tironean  writing  in 
Bern  ;  a  breviarium  Alai-iei  in  Munich  with  Tironean  marginals. 

Again,  Gabelsberger  mentions  a  copy  of  the  Salic  law,  which  was 
formerly  in  the  library  at  Beauvais,  but  now  probably  to  be  found  in 
Paris. 

The  Tironean  Notes  are  also  to  be  found  in  the  following  manii 
scripts : 

1.  A  book  {Codex  Oviterms  58)  which  was  formerly  in  Oviedo,  but 
now  in  Madrid,  which  begins  with  a  genealogical  table  of  the  Gothic 
kings.  These  Madrid  notes  are  given  in  full  and  described  in  W-. 
Schmitz's  "  Study  of  the  Latin  Stenography  "  in  Panstenographikon, 
Vol.  1. 

2.  Codex  of  Lactantius  de  opifido  dei,  in  quarto,  which  was  first  at 
Bobbio,  but  which,  we  regret  to  say,  is  not  now  to  be  found. 

3.  Two  codices  of  the  Leyden  university  (  yosnianvs  ImI.  0.  94  et 
Q.  93.) 

4.  The  manuscript  of  Isidor  from  the  9th  century,  No.  9311-9319, 
which  formerly  belonged  to  the  Jesuits  at  Antwerp;  but  which  is 
now  in  the  great  library  at  Brussels. 

5.  Tlie  manuscripts  No.  190,  7493,  8777,  8778,  8779,  8780  in  the 
library  of  Paris. 

6.  Manuscript  No.  85  in  the  library  at  Geneva. 

7.  The  Lexicon  Tironianum  of  the  GSttenger  ecclesiastical  library, 
which  Theo.  Sickel  has  described  in  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  philosophical  and  historical  ses.sions  of  the  Vienna  Academy, 
Vol.  38  part  1,  1861. 


46 

8.  Two  Bern  codices  358  and  668,  which  W.  Schmitz  likewise  ex- 
pressly described  and  reproduced  in  Vol.  1,  of  the  Panstenograph- 
ikon. 

9.  One  fragment  at  the  Wolfenbilttel  Librarj',  mentioned  by  W. 
Schmidt  in  his  "  Tironiaiui,"  one  leaf  and  a  half  from  a  mannseript 
in  Tironean  Notes  from  the  ninth  century. 

10.  A  list  of  Die»  Aegyptiaci  in  Tironean  Notes,  to  be  found  on  the 
back  of  folio  No.  99  in  the  Wolfenbuttel  manuscript  of  Tironean 
Notes. 

The  manuscript  of  Tironean  Not«s  formerly  kept  in  the  Strass- 
burg  Library  was  destroyed  by  fire  at  the  burning  of  the  library,  but 
the  text  of  the  same  was  preserved  in  a  copy  made  by  W.  Schmitz 
September  4-8,  1869,  in  the  library  above  mentioned,  containing  the 
printed  collection  of  Gruter.  This  codice  is  described  in  detail  in  the 
Kheinisches  Museum  for  Philology,  N.  F.  xxvi  P.  146,  etc.  An  in- 
spection of  the  .supposed  codice  existing  in  Oxford  has  proved  it  to 
be  a  worthless  transcript  made  in  the  ITth  century  from  the  Gruter 
collection.  A  manuscript,  superscribed  Diomedex  (p-ammnticnit  et  Wter 
de  notii,  which  was  hastily  examined  by  the  author  at  the  library  at 
Paris,  contained  on  the  last  page  a  collection  of  the  Tironean  Notes, 
which  end  witli  Placiat.  At  the  close  of  the  manuscript  we  read  : 
Explicit  prologuK  de  vulgaribus  nolis,  quern  ego  J.  Grosxelinvs  hie  tran- 
Kcripfi  ex  alio  libi'o  irumufcripto  hvjus  bibliothecae,  1598.* 

It  is  possible,  however,  that  there  are  many  undiscovered  manu- 
scripts written  wholly  or  in  part  in  Tironean  Notes  which  may  some 
day  meet  the  keen  search  of  a  paleographer. 

On  the  Latin  codices  in  the  National  Library  at  Paris  under  the 
catalogue  numbers  190.  7493,  8777,  8778,  8779  and  8780  there  are 
6.  which,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  designated  parchment  manu- 
scripts of  the  Comnientarii  notarum,  are  partly  complete  and  partly 
fragmentary,  in  quarto.  Schmitz,  after  a  jiersonal  inspection  and 
comparison  with  the  notes  printed  by  Gruter,  published  in  the 
Rheini.sches  Museum  for  Filologie,  Vol.  31,  p.  287,  etc..  a  more  ac- 
curate reiwrt  than  Kopp  was  able  to  give  in  his  work,  Vol.  1.  p.  301. 
Schmitz  establishes  the  succession  of  the  various  codices  relating  to 
this  subject  in  the  following  manner  :  Codex  Cassellanus  from  the 
.second  half  of  the  eighth  century,  and  the  Paris  manuscript  190, 
constitute  the  first  and  mo.st  valuable  group.  Next  we  have  the 
commentary  in  the  first  Gruter  manuscript,  the  Paris  manascripl 
8779  and  the  Leyden  codices  O.  94  and  Q.  93  as  the  .second  group. 
The  Gottweiger  manu.script,  the  Paris  manuscripts  8777  and  8780 
and  the  Stra.ssburg  manuscrijjt  as  the  third  ;  and  finally  the  Paris 
manuscript  8778  as  the  fourth  group  ;  while  the  Geneva  and  the 

[♦"  The  prologue  gives  an  explanation  of  the  common  notes,  which  J .  .1.  Grosselinns 
has  here  transcribed,— another  book  written  in  manuscript  ftom  this  library,  1698.'"] 


Paris  manuscript  "7493  cannot  be  placed  in  any  of  these  groups.  In 
a  further  article  on  the  Tironean  Notes,  contained  in  the  same  volume 
of  the  Rheinistihen  Museum  fftr  Filologie,  p.  631  etc.,  Schmitz  says, 
respecting  the  words  of  Muratori  in  dissertation  de  DoUmts  (Antfq. 
Itnl  medii  aevi  1) :  "  Mihi  in  Ambromtrm  Mediolaneuni  Bibliotheca  nnn 
unvfi  Codex  hisee  Notis  seriptuit  seite  Midit,  quas  cum  contulisu<em  cum 
emilgatU  a  Onitero  eiisdem  ipms  enite  deprehendi,  atque  iiide  rede  dedn- 
cebam  verbn  per  ejuxmodi  Sotns  nenpUt,"**  these  expectations  are 
ba-sed  on  the  l)elief  that  there  must  exist  codices  written  in  Tironean 
Notes  in  the  Ambrosian  librarj',  and  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that 
Muratori  does  not  say  that  the  Milan  co<^lices  written  in  Tironean 
Notes  contain  the  Gruter  text  of  the  CommenUnii  Notnvmn,\mX\n- 
timates  from  authentic  sources,  that  these  note  commentaries  do  not 
exist  in  the  Milan  library  in  manuscript  form.  The  only  codex  in 
Tironean  Notes  is  the  Ambrosianus  M.  12.  sup.  .seac.  ix,  a  pal- 
impsest— the  ancient  writing  in  uncial  letters  contains  a  missal — 
whose  superscription  reads:  ''  Inctpit  liber  bede  de  femjwribns  et  vnrm 
(emponim  spntm."  The  text  is  for  the  greater  part  written  in  Tiro- 
nean Notes,  and  in  .such  a  way  that  on  many  pages  only  a  few  notes 
are  interspersed,  whilst  in  others  the  stenographic  mode  of  writing 
preponderates. 

There  appears  to  be  but  little  of  the  Greek  stenogi-aphy  preserved 
to  us.  Kopp  cites  two  manuscripts,  one  preserved  in  the  Vatican 
Library  which  contains  among  other  works  written  in  the  usual 
writing,  the  works  of  Dionysius  Areopagita  and  a  portion  of  the  book 
Henoch  written  in  Greek  shorthand  ;  and  a  second,  included  in  the 
writings  of  Hermogenes  of  Tarsos.  and  others  (161  A.  D.),  which 
is  found  in  the  Paris  Library. 

The  manuscript  of  the  rhetoric  of  Hermogenes,  much  used  in 
classical  authorities,  is  the  principal  source  of  the  knowledge  of 
Greek  tachygraphy.  The  German  philologist  Bast,  in  Paris,  secured 
for  Kopp  an  inspection  of  this  manuscript  and  under  his  direction 
the  writing  was  soon  deciphered.  Montfaucon  in  his  Paleographia 
GraecA  had  caused  two  tables  from  this  manuscript  to  be  engraved, 
and  endeavored  to  explain  the  writing  ;  but  as  the  signs  had  not  been 
made  exact  enough  and  INIontfaucon  had  not  hit  the  true  sense.  Bast 
decided  to  engrave  in  copjx'r  these  "  rhetorical  signs,"  as  the}'  calletl 
these  writings,  for  the  reason  that  they  were  in  a  book  on  rhetoric, 
and  charged  Kopp  with  the  execution  of  this  plan.  Kopp  spent  all 
jK)ssible  time  on  this  work,  but,  unfortunately.  Bast  died  before  il 
was  completed. 

If  we  look  for  the  one  who,  in  the  course  of  time,  after  the  stenog- 
raphy of  the  ancient*  had  ceased  to  be  employed  and  had  become  a 

**••  In  the  Ambrosian  Mediolao  library,  not  asincrle  book  came  into  my  h.and.<<  written 
"  in  those  notes  which,  havin"?  been  compared  by  me  with  those  published  by  liruter, 
'•  1  did  not  find  to  be  the  very  same;  and  then  I  "straightway  concluded  that  the  word.i 
'•  wei-e  written  in  characters  of  this  kind." 


47 

mystic-like  writing,  was  most  active  in  searching  for  the  key  to  it, — 
we  find  him  without  doubt  to  be  the  oft-mentioned  Abbot  Tritenheim, 
who  first  published  a  few  Tironean  signs.  Baptist  Porta  followed 
him,  and  in  his  treatise  on  secret  writing  gave  three  such  stenograph- 
ical  signs  engraved  on  wood.  An  unknown  author  also,  later  on, 
gave  some  specimens.  Lipsius  wrote  his  celebrated  letter  to  Leon- 
hard  Lessius  about  this  note  writing.  The  letter  of  Cardinal  Bembo 
to  Pope  Julius,  in  which  he  a.sked  him  to  do  everything  to  revive  the 
study  of  the  Tironean  Notes,  should  not  be  passed  without  mention. 
After  Gruter  had  published  in  his  above  mentioned  work  a  large 
collection,  Mabillon,  Montfaucou,  Carpentier,  Toustain  and  Tassin, 
rendered  service  by  the  publication  of  and  efforts  at  explanation  of 
the  Tironean  Notes,  but  Ulrich  Kopp,  a  well-known  paleograplier 
and  Hessian  Cabinet  counselor,  succeeded,  after  long  researches 
made  with  Glerman  thoroughness,  in  lifting  the  veil  from  this  hitherto 
deeplj'  buried  treasure  of  antiquit}%  and  presented  to  the  astonished 
world  the  key  to  the  Roman  and  Greek  tachj'graphy.  His  work, 
often  mentioned  by  us,  .stands  to  this  hour  as  an  invaluable  monu- 
ment of  German  learning  and  German  acumen,  tliough  later  re- 
searches have  shown  a  few  occasional  errors  in  it.  It  should  be 
stated,  however,  that  the  wooden  types  of  the  numerous  Tironean 
signs  contained  in  the  work  which  he  caused  to  be  printed,  (which 
were  executed  at  his  own  expense)  are  still  preserved,  as  we  learn, 
in  the  possession  of  the  antiquarian  Bar  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

After  Kopp.  Tardiff  occupied  himself  with  a  close  studi'  of  Tiro- 
nean Notes. 

At  the  present  time  Wm.  Schmitz,  director  of  the  college  at 
Cologne,  has,  above  all,  rendered  service  by  the  explanation  of  the 
character  of  the  Tironean  Notes. 

Tironean  Notes  were  also  used  for  signatures,  amongst  othens,  in 
a  deed  of  record  issued  by  Bishop  Agius  in  -the  jear  854  to  the  canon 
of  St.  Aignan  respecting  the  erection  of  the  chapel  of  Notre  Dame 
du  Chemin,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  Antiquites  Historiques  de 
TEglise  royale  de  Saint- Aignan  d'Orleans  par  M.  Huljert,  Chanoine 
de  S.  A.  1664.  Jules  Tardiff  took  the  pains  to  explain  the  Tironean 
Notes  occurring  in  that  document. 

The  knowledge  of  Roman  tachygraphy  (which  in  the  Middle  Ages 
was  only  known  by  the  name  of  Tironean  Notes)  as  well  as  the 
knowledge  of  the  Greek,  dates  from  the  9th  century  after  Christ.  It 
was,  however,  still  in  use  during  the  rule  of  the  Carlovingians.  It  was 
used  for  paraphs  in  diplomas,  for  signatures  to  decrees  and  for 
the  signing  of  important  manuscripts,  such  as  collections  of  psalms 
and  formulas,  as  well  as  for  sketches  of  judicial  writings.  Perhaps 
it  served  also  at  that  period  to  fix  the  winged  word,  whicli  may  be 
inferred  from  a  passage  in  a  letter  of  the  Abbot  Hilduin.  In  the 
10th  century  it  was  entirely  lost. 


48 

STENOGRAPHY  FROM  THE  TENTH  TO  THE  END  OF  THE 
SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Dubiae  crepiiscula  lucis. 

In  former  historical  essays  these  centuries  have  been  passed  over 
verj'  liastily.  Anders  makes  several  allusions  to  the  subject,  but 
always  in  a  doubtful  manner.  Neither  are  we  able  to  present  irrefut- 
able proofs  of  the  existence  of  stenograph}'  during  this  period.  Still, 
we  consider  it  a  dutj',  in  accordance  with  those  allusions,  to  present 
a  few  points  which  maj-  bean  aid  to  further  investigations.  Alluring 
iis  is  the  temptation,  we  refrain  from  adducing  an\'  hypotheses  in 
favor  of  the  existence  of  our  art  in  all  that  time  because  of  the  fol- 
lowing facts : 

Abu  Muhammad  Ben  Ishak,  relates  in  his  complete  History  of 
Literature. — which  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  possession  of  the  Ara- 
bians,— in  the  year  987  : 

To  Abu  Bekr  Muhammad  Ben  Zakarja  ar  Rfizi — the  Rasis  or 
Rhases  yei  celebrated  in  the  medical  world,  who  died  in  the 
year  923  of  our  era — a  man  came  from  China  and  resided 
about  a  year  with  him,  and  acquired  the  Arabian  language  and  w  rit- 
ing  within  five  months.  A  month  before  his  return  to  his  native 
country,  he  requested  his  teacher  to  have  dictated  to  him  sixteen  certain 
IxMjks  of  Galenos.  To  the  objection  made  that  the  time  was  far  too 
short  to  do  it,  the  Chinaman  replied:  By  no  means,  dictate  as  fast  as 
you  can,  I  will  keep  up  with  the  words.  The  scholars  of  Rhases 
dictated  as  rapidly  as  they  pos.sibly  could,  but  he  wrote  still  faster 
and  surpas-sed  them  all.  The  former,  in  astonishment,  asked  him 
how  that  was  possible.  He  answered,  we  have  a  writing  which  we 
employ  when  we  want  to  write  much  in  a  short  time.  I  used  this 
kind  of  writing.  When  it  is  necessary,  we  ^transcribe  this  writing 
into  the  common  or  ordinary  writing.  But  he  added,  significantly, 
even  one  who  is  intelligent  and  quick  of  comprehension  will  require 
at  least  twenty  years  of  continual  study  to  master  that  writing. 

From  this  interesting  report,  although  unsupported  by  stronger 
evidence,  we  can  rea.sonably  infer  that  the  Celestials  had  a  stenog- 
raphy. 

Besides  we  find  a  similar  instance  in  Haji  Khalfa's  encyclopediacal 
Lexicon  of  bibliography  much  resembling  that  given  in  the  above 
cited  Fihrtx.  We  do  not  venture  to  assert  the  opinion  whether  or 
not  both  narratives  may  be  identical,  and  that  Haji  Khalfa  has  only 
inaccurately  given  what  he  found  in  his  authority. 

On  the  other  hand,  that  stenography  was  not  known  to  the  Ara- 
bians, is  to  a  certain  degree  a.stonishing,  but,  according  to  llaji 
Khalfa,  is  ix>sitively  assured. 

It  would  not  be  out  of  the  way  to  mention,  in  this  connection, 
the  "  broken  writing''  of  the  modern  Persians.     They  possess  a  spe- 


49 

cial  writing  approaching  stenography  which  is  frequently  employed 
bj-  them  in  ordinary  life,  and  which  is  not  easily  read  by  foreigners 
otherwise  well  acquainted  with  the  Persian  language. 

Khalfa,  professor  in  the  College  Aiinenien-Mom'at  in  Paris,  gives 
in  his  "  Guide  de  la  conversation"  (Paris  1854)  for  stenographer  the 
Turkish  word  "  H&tti  moukhtasmr  yazan  " — one  who  writes  with  ab- 
breviations— but  the  matter  itself  is  unknown  in  Turkey. 

Anders  mentions  a  certain  Abbot  Eckard  in  St.  Gall  who  was 
a  skilful  shorthand  writer.  My  predecessor  probably  did  not 
have  anything  else  in  view  than  the  notice  given  in  Kopp's  work 
(P.  485)  that  Ekkehard  (died  973)  the  dean  of  the  abbey  at  St.  Gall, 
through  his  "  Notulae,"  amazed  theEmeror  Otto  Second.  But  Kopp 
does  not  venture  to  decide  whether  or  not  any  Tironean  shorthand 
writing  is  to  be  understood  by  this  notulae. 

In  the  life  of  St.  Bernard  (1091-1153)  it  is  related  that  God,  whilst 
the  choir  sang,  opened  his  eyes  and  that  he  saw  an  angel  standing 
next  to  the  monks,  who,  as  a  kind  of  shorthand  writer,  truly  noted 
down  what  the  former  sang. 

We  are  especiallj''  indebted  to  Valentin  Rose  of  Berlin,  for  the 
statement,  that  on  the  soil  upon  which  shorthand  writing  of  modern 
limes  originated,  namely,  in  England,  centuries  before,  in  the  second 
half  of  the  twelfth  century,  an  attempt  at  a  complete  system  of  stenog- 
laphy  had  been  made  which,  like  modern  stenography,  is  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  notes  of  the  ancients — a  stenography 
which  was  termed  ivova  notaiHa,  as  differing  from  the  long 
perished  and  forgotten  ars  notaiiu.  The  time  from  the  tenth 
to  the  sixteenth  century  is  no  longer  a  blank  page  in  the 
history  of  stenography.  The  author,  John  of  Tilburj-,  consid- 
ere  himself  the  first  inventor.  He  pretends  to  serve  especially  the 
needs  of  the  scholares ;  he  has  at  the  same  time  the  highest  idea 
of  the  importance  and  success  of  his  invention,  through  which  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  the  scholars  will  equal  the  teacher  ;  through 
which  a  sure  foundation  will  be  acquired  for  a  more  comprehensive 
mastery  of  existing  knowlege  and  of  its  effective  extension, — ut 
unicuique  velde  quacunqmre  inteiTogetiir  semper aliquid  respondendum 
habeat  prae  manibus*  Outside  of  England  this  '' ars  notarui 
aristoiilis  "  appears  to  have  been  scarcely  known.  It  is  embodied  in 
.several  manuscripts,  one  of  which  is  preserved  at  Florence  ;  the  best 
and  most  complete  is  at  Oxford,  and  a  third  at  London.  The  author 
guards  against  the  confounding  of  this  art  with  the  magical  arts.  He 
pretends  to  be  indebted  for  it  to  suggestions  of  St.  Thomas.  Pie  de- 
scribes the  art  as  follows  :  E^us  vis  et  efflcada  est  velocitas  sciibendi 
ilocere  ut  ea  celeritate,  qua  ex  oi'e  verba  profei'untur,  pan  qixoque 
celocitate  volantis  manus  notariae  excipiantur,  ita  ut  rum  praeveniat  os 


r*"Tbat  be  might  have  something  ready  to  respond,  whosoever  might  question 
'  nim  conoeming  any  snbiect."] 


50 

loqueniis  vianum  notwii,  sed  jyraeeurrenff  manus  notarii  semper 
nnticipet  OHloquentis,  dtaUm  cumimpetu  verba  non  fundantur*  He 
further  sjjys  that  he  had  previously  explained  his  new  writ- 
ing in  three  vohimes;  two  comprising  the  theory  and  analy- 
sis of  his  new  system  throvigh  conversations  between  )wia- 
riug  and  amicim,  and  one  on  practice,  which  contains  a  dictionary 
of  the  notes.  Of  these  liooks  we  know  nothing.  What  lies  before 
us  is  a  kind  of  abridgement  in  the  form  of  a  letter.  In  the  introduc- 
tion there  is  a  criticism  on  the  antirjuu  uotariu.  Those  examples 
which  Joh;i  of  Tilbury  produces  as  characterizing  the  Tironean 
Notes  indicate,  however,  according  to  Schmitz,  that  the  English 
monk  either  possessed  a  mangled  text,  oi-  had  an  incomplete  knowl- 
edge of  the  Tironean  Notes.  He  assigns,  as  technical  terminations, 
the  words  nokt,  and  titula,  for  the  principal  sign  and  for  the  auxiliary 
signs.  In  his  systenr;  an  alteration  of  the  letter  "  I,"  through  differ- 
ent beginnings  (»f  a  cross  stroke,  designates  the  twenty,  or  lather  the 
nineteen  fundamental  letters  of  the  notarial  alphabet,  and  from  the 
same  I,  through  points  (and  by  round  and  tailed  strokes),  and  points 
added  to  it,  in  various  positions,  are  formed  the  nuiltiplicity  of  the 
note  figures  and  all  the  titidae.  From  the  uncertain  and  even  defi- 
cient context  of  the  letter  and  the  absence  of  the  aforesaid  three 
complete  books,  we  can  form  no  correct  idea  of  the  whole  matter 
nor  of  what  it  accomplished.  It  is  a  (jueslion  wliether  this  invention 
in  the  main,  was  really  more  than  an  amusement  of  the  cloister  cell, 
or  whether  it  was  perfected  in  the  mind  t>f  the  author.  Finally,  as 
regards  the  author  himself,  Mr.  Kosc  has  only  the  following  to  say  : 
John  of  Tilbiu-y  was  a  monk  and  a  clergyman,  a  learned  man  and 
an  author,  but  was  sickly  and  suffered  especially  with  his  eyes.  He 
did  not  write  the  letter  preserved  to  us  before  1174,  and  probably  not 
very  long  afterwards. 

Above  all,  the  question  which  it  is  important  to  au>\ver  is,  whether 
shorthand  writing  was  known  in  the  old  universities  and  was  made 
use  of  in  tUem.  In  this  connection  we  find  the  following  facts  : 
"Not  an  unimportant  part  of  the  present  existing  conuuentarial  lit- 
"erature,"  says  Savigny,  "consists  of  college  note  books.  Even 
"among  the  several  commentators  of  the  earlier  times,  individual 
"  students  were  known  as  collectoi's  and  editors.  Indeed  Nicolaus 
Furiosus,  the  pupil  of  Joannes  Bassianus," — who  flourished  in  Bo- 
logna in  the  latter  part  of  the  12th  century, — "  undertook  that  work." 
He  gained  great  credit,  as  is  further  related,  by  a  verbatim  annota- 
tion and  the  dissemination  of  the  lectures  of  his  teacher. 

["*  The  power  and  etticacy  of  this  isr.apidity  in  writing,  to  show  tliat  words  are  re- 
peated by  the  hands  of  a  rapid  reporter  with  the  same  rapidity  with  which  they  are 
uttered :  so  that  tho  speech  of  the  speaker  shail  not  outrun  the  movement  of  the  hand  of 
the  reporter,  but  the  hand  of  the  notary,  running-  ahead,  may  anticipate  the  speech  of 
the  8t)eaker,  if  the  woitls  be  not  uttered  with  veheracncc." 

"  Now,  althong-h  I  am  incensed  and  in-itated  to  no  pur|)osc  that  my  thoughts,  uttered 
.atbreakfasts  and  dinners,  are  given  to  the  public,  I  am  even  compelled,  by  the  en- 
treaties of  other  friends,  to  adorn  whatever  I  have  to  say  with  a  preface,  although  I 
have  nothing— unless,  as  I  do  not  care  to  deny— my  woi-ds,  even,  have  been  thought 
out."] 

/ 


51 

•'  This  same  service  was  rendered  Azo  (died  1330)  by  Alexander  de 
■'  Sanclo  Aegidio,  who  mentions  it  in  the  preface  to  the  printed  lec- 
"  tures  of  Azo  concerning  the  Codex.  Likewise  the  best  and  the 
"most  important  writings  we  have  of  Odofredus  (died  1356) — his 
■'  exegetical  writings — and  which  secured  for  him  a  lasting  fame,  are 
•'  lectures  written  down  by  the  hearers  and  subsequently  circulated 
'■  in  real  books.  The  correctness  of  this  opinion  appears  from  the 
"character  of  that  work,  wherein  the  hearers  are  constantly  ad- 
"  dressed  with:  or  (tignori.  The  positive  appellation  lecturae,  further 
'  •  confirm,  this,  while  the  commentary  of  Accursius  is  constantly  named 
•'  apparatus.  This  explains  the  extraordinary  diflferenceof  the  hand- 
"  writings,  which  could  not  easily  have  occurred  in  real  books." 

The  confidential  and  vivacious  tone,  but  also  the  negligence  which 
characterized  many  of  these  lectui^es,  the  rendition  of  all  phrases, 
memorial  verses  and  jocular  remarks,  and  the  referring  of  the  audi- 
tors to  their  own  study  of  the  passages  which  had  been  omitted  in  the 
lecture :  all  this  testifies  still  further  to  the  literal  rendering  of  the 
lecturae.  On  the  other  hand  it  supports  the  a.ssumption  that  the  lec- 
ture must  have  been  delivered  entirely  extemjwraneously  l>y  the 
teacher. 

"  The  e.xegetical  writings  of  Guidos  de  Suzaria,  one  of  the  theo- 
"  rists  (died  between  1383  and  1293  at  Bologna),  which,  according  to 
■'Accursius,  relate  to  the  code,  exist  in  manuscripts  in  Paris,  are 
"likewi.se  not  commentaries,  but  are  reported  lectures.  The  con- 
"  elusion  of  one  of  them  reads  :  iVisc  dico  phira  hie,  qxiia  tarda  lurra 
"  e«t.  Perhaps  two  of  his  pupils.  Jacobus  de  Arena  and  Guido  de 
"  Baisio,  wrote  down  these  lectures." 

The  greater  part  of  what  we  have  of  Bartolus  (died  1357)  are  like- 
wise lecturae,  many  of  which  were  preserved  merely  because  they 
were  taken  down  liy  heareiv. 

"  In  the  twelfth  and  fifteenth  centuries  almost  the  entire  legal  lit- 
"  erature  was  condensed  by  this  method  of  procedure." 

Also,  in  other  universities,  writing  down  lectures  was  a  daily  exer- 
cise, for  which  Savjgny  presents  a  remarkable  proof,  especiallj'  re- 
garding the  practice  at  the  university  of  Paris.  That  this  custom 
was  also  observed  in  the  medical  school  at  Salerno,  is  highly  proba- 
)»le,  althougli  proof  of  it  is  lacking  at  the  present  time. 

Quetif  and  Echardet,  the  publishers  of  the  sc?^f 'tores  ordinlit 
praedicatoi'iim  state  that  among  those  manuscripts  preserved  in  Sar- 
bonne,  there  are  lectures  delivered  by  Albert  the  Great  (died  1380) 
which  were  taken  down  by  the  most  nimble  fingered  hearers. 

A  hint  that  in  the  thirteenth  century  shorthand  writing  was  in  use 
is  derived  by  the  Italian  authors  from  the  well  known  passage  in 
Dante's  Divine  Comedy  (Paradise,  Canto  19,  Line  133),  in  which  the 


52 

poet  alludes  to  the  avaricious  king  Frfderick  of  Sicily,  son  of  Peter 
of  Arragon  : 

Et  a  dare  ad  inteuder  quanto  e  ijoco, 
La  sua  scrittura  lien  lettere  mozze. 
Che  noteranno  molto  in  par\^o  locf). 

The  mode  of  preaching  of  the  13th  and  subsequent  centuries  also 
oflfers  to  the  investigators  in  our  tield  many  interesting  facts. 

Thus,  it  is  related  of  the  Franciscan  monk  Bertold.  one  of  the 
most  popular  of  all  men  who  lived  and  worked  before  and  after  his 
time  in  Germany,  that  most  of  his  sermons  delivered  in  the  open  air 
before  an  almost  incredibly  large  crowd  of  people,  and  which  ser- 
mons are  acknowledged  as  the  most  excellent  of  the  German  homilies 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  uniting  rare  vivacity  and  freshness  of  sub- 
stance as  well  as  form  of  delivery,  were  written  down  by  hearers. 

Indeed,  Jacob  Grimm  says :  "  I  must  sjiy.  further,  that  I  consider 
"it  was  written  down  with  the  utmost  reliability,  and  that  the  pecii- 
"liarities  of  the  orators  in  phraseology,  expressions,  and  even  in  the 
"dialects  were  accurately  comprehended.  If  the  orator  himself  had 
"written  out  his  sermons  lie  would,  perhaps,  have  polished  and  con- 
"tracted  the  periods,  and  thereby  deprived  them  of  their  natural - 
"ness,  which,  to  the  reader  as  well  as  the  hearer,  however,  was  the 
"most  delightful  and  attractive  part." 

"There  is  no  doubt  of  the  possibility,"  continues  our  author,  "of 
"a  faithful  and  complete  reporting  of  a  recently  delivered  ser- 
•  •  mon  from  memory  by  intelligent  hearers.  Such  is  the  case  even  in 
"our  day;  how  much  more  in  those  times,  when  the  powers  of  mem- 
"ory,  on  the  whole,  were  more  acute  and  concentrated,  and  the  pnu- 
"  tice  of  writing  down  was  held  in  a  proportionately  higher  estima- 
"tion.  In  Tauler's  (died  1361)  sermons  (old  edition  printed  at  Leip- 
"  zig)  there  is  mentioned  a  .sermon  which  was  fully  noted  down  by  a 
"  hearer." 

'•  Since  Tauler,  Strasbourg,  nay,  entire  Germany,  has  seen  no 
'  •  popular  preacher  of  such  brilliant  qualities  that  his  sermons  were 
' '  universally  received  as  oracles,  none  who  so  earnestly  and  candidly 
"exercised  his  calling,  as  Johann  Geiler,  of  Kaisersberg,  (died  1510). 
"His  sermons,  originally  composed  in  Latin," — which  he,  as  Beatus 
Rhenanus  says,  had  hastily  written  down  at  home — "were,  as  he  him- 
•  .self  never  published  anything,  for  the  most  part  published  by  the 
'•  Franciscan  monk,  Johannes  Pauli,  (1506-1510,  guardian  of  the 
'•  Minorite  Convent  at  Strasbourg)  '  who  Avrote  down  as  much  as  he 
"'remembered  of  every  .sermon.'  Jacob  Wimpheling,  Joh.  Adel- 
"  phus  (city  physician  at  Schaflfhausen)  and  Henry  Wessmer  have 
"also  translated  several  of  his  .series  of  sermons  into  German." 

Wickgram,  Geiler's  nephew  and  successor  in  the  office  of  preacher, 
as  well  as  Jacob  Other  and  Beatus  Rhenanus,  edited  a  part  of  Geiler's 
orations  in   the  original  writing.     The  just  mentioned  relative  of 


53 

the  great  pulpit  orator  speaks  in  a  very  deprecatory  manner  of  Pauli's 
publications,  whether  from  envy,  because  the  latter  anticipated 
him,  or  from  policy,  in  order  to  render  less  conspicuous  some  passages 
reflecting  upon  the  clergy  that  would  thus  aid  in  preserving  the  good 
standing  of  his  uncle  in  the  church. 

In  Tlvomae  a  Kempis  vita  Florentt,  cap.  33,  we  find  the  statement 
that  the  numerous  scholars  whom  the  fame  of  Florentius  (died  1400) 
drew  to  Deventer,  noted  down  the  words  of  the  mastei",  in  order  to 
send  them  to  distant  friends. 

Joannes  Gcrson  (really  Charlier,  of  Gerson,  or  Jerson,  a  village  in 
the  diocese  of  Rheims,  died  1429),  Geiler's  teacher,  diligently 
preached  in  his  native  language.  His  inimerous  sermons  were  writ- 
ten down  by  devout  hearers  and  transcribed  into  the  French  lan- 
guage, not  verbatim,  but  according  to  the  sense,  and  were  subse- 
quently tran.slated  into  Latin.  But  the  peculiar  charm  of  freshness 
and  originality,  according  to  Wlmpheling's  preface  (A.  D.  1401),  iin- 
fortunatelj'  became  lost  in  the  transcriptions. 

We  read  further  that  the  sermons  of  St.  Bernhardin,  of  Siena  (15 
in  number),  delivered  in  the  year  1437  in  the  public  market  of  the 
city,  were  written  down  by  a  citizen  of  Siena  named  Antonio  de' 
Bartolomei,  a  cloth  cutter  by  trade,  upon  wax  tablets  {in  tnvolette  de 
rera)  and  invariably  engrossed  on  the  same  day. 

The  style  of  the  sermons  is  clear  and  ingenious,  simple  and  tem- 
perate, not  obscured  through  deficiencies  which  characterized  the 
Italian  language  subsequent  to  the  lime  of  the  15th  century.  The 
words  are  in  a  large  part  peculiar  to  the  dialect  of  Siemi,  which  was 
familiar  and  very  valuable  to  the  saint  from  his  j'outh,  until  the 
Crusca,  in  expunging  them,  deprived  the  sermons  of  their  richest 
bloom. 

Abbot  Luigi  de  Angelis  supposes  that  it  must  have  been  an  easy 
tiling  for  the  shorthand  writers  to  follow  the  rapid  discourse  ver' 
batim,  even  in  a  standing  position,  and  without  support,  and  sur- 
rounded by  the  pious  midtitude.  "The  tablets,"  says  he,  "render 
"  sufHcient  resistance,  they  were  easy  to  turn,  occupied  little  space 
' '  and  once  covered  with  wax  received  every  impression.  In  the  past 
"  centuries  they  made  use  of  those  tablets  covered  with  wax  in  order 
"to  accomplish  what  modern  tachygraphers  accomplish  with  paper 
"  and  pencil.  The  former  process  woiild  present  no  difficulty  even 
■ '  in  oiu'  days,  as  it  appears  that  Benedetto  di  Bartolommeo  in  the 
■  15th  century  got  along  very  well  with  it."  "  The  tachygraphers," 
adds  de  Angelis.  "  expressly  employed  signs  and  abbreviations  in  or- 
"  der  to  Avrite  quicker,  and  this  art  of  shorthand  writing  has  extended 
"to  our  days,  although  it  did  not  come  into  universal,  nor  even  into 
"  frequent  use." 

A  great  part  of  the  sermons  of  the  "  new  prophet,"  Girolamo 
Savonarola,  (died  1498)  were  reported  by  the  worshipers,  especiallj- 


by  a  Florentine  "  notary"  by  the  name  of  r^orenzo  di  Jacopo  Violi. 
In  all  the  older  editions  of  his  sermons  tliis  fact  has  been  mentione<l 
in  the  words  :  "  Rnrcolte  dalta  viva  v<M-e."  "  The  natural  force  and 
•■  energy  of  the  language  of  Savonarola  often  affected  the  hearers  so 
'•  povverfidly  that  not  only  the  multitude  broke  out  in  loud  crying, 
'•  but  even  men  like  Pico  della  Mirandola  were  not  unfrequently 
••  awe-struck  by  the  jiower  of  his  oratory  and  his  convincing  employ- 
•  ment  of  biblic^\l  passages  "  Violi  was  once  so  overcome  with  weep- 
ing while  reporting,  that  he  was.  on  that  account,  unalile  to  write 
until  the  dose  of  the  sermon. 

What  wonder  that  such  sermons  were  written  down  and  circulated 
in  copies  I  To  be  sure,  in  doing  so  it  frequently  happened  that  many 
discourses  were  abbreviated  incompletely  on  account  of  haste,  and 
were  taken  down  with  manj'  inaccuracies  :  others,  from  the  want  of 
proper  understanding,  or  even  from  malicious  design,  were  disfigured 
bj'  additions  and  omissions,  and  Avere  spread  through  the  commun- 
ity, and  even  made  public  in  print.  For  that  reason  Savonarola  fell 
the  necessity  of  protesting  iK'fore  the  i)eople  in  a  special  pamphlet 
(rompend.  reve'dtt.)  against  that  sort  of  publication  of  his  discourses. 

Likewise,  the  table  talks  of  the  great  reformer,  Luther,  (died  1546) 
were  taken  down  "  from  his  mouth."  In  the  preface  to  the  "  Collo- 
quies, or  Table  Talks  of  Dr.  Martin  Luther."  (first  put  in  print  by 
Joannes  Aurifabrus  Vimarienses  A.  D.  15(56.  and  printed  at  Jhena 
by  Tobias  Steinmann,)  we  read  :  "And  belong  to  this  piviecl.  dep. 
'^nenpf.  rec.  pitr.  Luthen,  also  \\w<i'  frngm.  coUoq,  or  Kerm.  memomd. . 
"which  many  highl}' Iciirned  and  pious  men,  who  lived  with  and 
"  near  Dr.  Luther,  and  his  disciples  and  friends,  among  them  Vitus 
"  Theodorus,  Antoninus  Lauterbach,  Wellerus,  Rorarius,  Mathesius 
"and  others,  diligently  and  truly  noted  down  'from  the  mouth"  of 
"  the  holy  man  of  God," 

Luther  acknowledges  the  correctness  of  these  report,s  as  follows  : 
•'  Nvnc  etd  fru»tra  indignor  ei  irnsuurr  etim  in  publkuiii  raptait"  (*<•. 
cogitidionefi^  mtb  prandm  et  coems  effvms)  "  cogor  etinm ,  aliatum  ami- 
"  coriim  jnecilniK,  pivefatione  m'nare,  cvm  inmen  mini  hnbeum,  quid 
"  dieeve  pftiunim,  uixi  qxiod  uefiare  non  andeu,  mea  em<e  et  rofjitnta  tt 
' '  tei'ha. " 

Myconius  relates  of  Luther's  contemporary  and  co-laborer  in  the 
work  of  reformation.  Dr.  Cruciger.  (or  Creutziger):  "  It  has  never 
"l)een  heard  that  any  man  on  earth  could  have  written  so  fast  as  this 
"Dr.  C'ruciger,  and  when  he  wrote  down  and  extracted  from  the  ser- 
"  mons  or  lectures  of  Luther,  he  forgot  no  word,  so  that  all  the  world 
"  was  iistonished  at  it." 

Dr.  Lohn,  in  his  below  cited  work,  repeats  this  statement,  and  still 
further  explains  "  that  Cruciger  had  used,  for  greater  accuracy,  ab- 
"breviated  signs  intelligible  only  to  himself,  which  he  subsequently, 
"  as  stenographers  now  do.  supplied  to  the  copy  through  ordinary 


55 

"  syllables  and  words,  and  was,  tlierefore,  prepared  in  a  short  time 
"  afterwards  to  present  the  oral  lecture  to  Luther  almost  without  de- 
•'flciencies.  Many  a  word  of  genius  and  strength  spoken  by  the 
"inspired  man,  which  was  called  out  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
"  must  have  been  lost  to  posterity,  had  not  Cruciger's  skill  and  untir- 
"ing  zeal  preserved  and  accurately  communicated  them  to  us. 
"  However,  as  Cruciger  was  not  quite  stitisfied  with  the  accuracy  of 
"  his  transcripts,  and  feared  that  in  the  hurry  many  a  sentence  was 
• '  not  heard,  or  was  incorrectly  understood,  he  insti*ucted  his  friend, 
••  George  RShrer.  in  this  art.  Both  now  reported  Luther's  lectures 
"and  sermons  at  the  same  time,  then  compared  with  each  other  what 
*' they  had  put  on  paper,  and  mutually  sought  to  complete  the  rc- 
"  port." 

During  the  religious  dispute  between  Eck  and  Melauchthou,  held  in 
the  \'ear  1540  at  AVorms,  "  Cruciger,  through  his  above  mentioned 
"skill,  wrote  down  almost  every  word  of  Melanchthon  and  Eck  with 
"  incredible  swiftues.s,  and  frequently  prompted  the  former,  who  was 
"still  suffering  from  the  effects  of  his  illness,  if  he  had  forgotten  to 
"  bring  forward  anything  in  his  answer  to  the  latters  objections. 
"  Chancellor  Gran vella  (who  presided  over  the  Reichstag)  could  not 
"  wonder  enough  concerning  this  rapid  gift  of  conception  and  re- 
"  markable  dexterity  in  bringing  the  sjwken  words  immediately  to 
"  paper  with  the  greatest  accuracy,  and  at  last  expres.sed  his  a-ston- 
"  ishment  in  the  words  :  '  The  Lutherans  have  a  writer  who  is  far 
"  '  more  learned  than  all  the  Roman  Catholics.'  " 

Whether  the  "new  and  peculiar  letters"  Avhich  Jewel.  Bishop  of 
Salisbury  (1559),  made  use  of  in  composing  his  numerous  and 
comprehensive  common-place  books  were  only  of  the  nature  of  secret 
signs,  and  not  shorthand  writing,  we  shall  not  decide.  It  has  been 
supposed,  however,  that  thej'  were  the  latter,  and  this  is  not  entirely 
improbable. 

When  Gabelsberger  says,  "  information  and  traces  of  the  employ- 
"  ment  of  tachygraphy  for  the  recording  of  the  proceedings  of  state 
"  assemblies  have  descended  from  the  most  ancient  times,  especially 
"notable  in  the  Storthings  of  Norway,  in  the  legislative  proceedings 
"of  Sweden,  in  the  Cortes  in  Spain,  and  in  the  Parliament  in  Eng- 
"  land,"  he  has  neglected  to  give  us  the  .sources  from  which  this  in- 
formation is  derived.  We  ourselves  have  not  been  able  to  find  any 
evidence  thereof.  Anders  also  maintains  that  there  was  no  reliable 
information  on  that  point. 

Many  examples  of  iwlitical  oiatory  from  the  golden  age  of  Polish 
literature  (1506  to  1632)  are  pre.sei*ved  to  us.  As  Sigismund,  the  elder, 
towards  the  end  of  his  reign  (1506  to  1546),  had  issued  a  "  Wizje" 
(general  summons)  and  when  all  the  micodesJiips  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Lemberg  (Lwow)  had  convened,   the  numerous  as.sembly — which 


66 

opened  at  the  break  of  day  and  deliberated  in  the  open  air — very 
soon  forgot  the  original  object  of  their  coming  together  (the  decif^ion 
of  the  question  Avhether  or  not  the  Wallachians  could  be  brought  to 
subjection  by  force),  and  proceeded  "to  debate  according  to  the 
"  rules  of  ancient  oratory,  and  observed  all  the  forms  of  modern  dis- 
"  cuasions.  The  speeches  delivered  during  these  deliberations  are 
"  a<;curately  preserved  to  us  by  the  historians.  Christendom  here  saw 
"for  the  first  time  an  example  of  parliamentary  oratory."  Among 
those  who  carefully  collected  the  voting  and  addresses  "as  some 
thing  important  and  I'emarkable."  it  appears  that  Orzechowski,  pre- 
bendary in  Przemysl  (died  1570).  took  the  lead.  It  is  a  pUy  that  our 
authority,  the  celebrated  Mickiewicz,  says  nothing,  or  has  nothing  to 
say,  of  the  manner  in  which  those  monuments  of  oratory  of  his 
countrymen  were  written  down  and  collected.  We  cannot  think  of 
stenography  being  employed  there. 

AVhen  we  sum  up  everything  that  has  been  said  in  the  foregoing, 
we  may  repeat  that,  aside  from  the  ars  itoiaiia  of  John  of  Tilbury, 
from  the  decline  of  the  Tironean  Notes  to  the  16th  century,  stenog- 
raphy, in  its  true  sense,  was  not  known  and  ])racticed;  on  the  other 
hand,  it  cannot  be  denie^l  timt  occasionally  the  threshold  of  this  art 
was  almost  crossed. 


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